


Down at the workshop

by Womble619



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-06
Updated: 2016-04-10
Packaged: 2018-05-12 06:55:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 41,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5656894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Womble619/pseuds/Womble619
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She had never been any kind of a girly girl. Her love for bombs, gadgets, engines and video games had gotten her friend-zoned more times than she cared to count. Noone ever seeing the young woman beneath with a heart sometimes bigger than her head. Most say there was only a love triangle in FF7, perhaps they were right? Or perhaps there was a square. Lemon, possible fluff, feels.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First impression

Dangerous, distant, quiet, unpredictable and chillingly haunted, those were Jessie's first thoughts of Cloud Strife the first time she ever looked into the man's eyes from afar. Baby-blue orbs radiating the luminous trademark of SOLDIER so deeply troubled that it made him unnerving to be around, frightening even. It was fair to say the recently turned eighteen year old and youngest member of AVALANCHE's initial instinct was that he was not to be trusted.

Yet despite those strong inclinations of caution and mistrust, her gut also told her many other things about the self-proclaimed 'first class' who had shown up two days ago out of the blue.

That he was kind. His face held many ominous things; confusion, despair, anger, but malevolence was not one of them.

That he was strong. Of course being enhanced with mako that was a given. It was something else. Forced to explain it she would say it was a strength of will, an air about him as if he had some great unsurfaced power residing within him. Like he could change the world if he set his mind to it. That aura made Jessie feel intimidated and nervous yet intrigued by it at the same time.

Then there was the clearest conclusion she could draw of him, which also happened to be the main reason why Cloud was still here and hadn't been launched headfirst from the doorway of Seventh Heaven or shot immediately on sight by Barret. That he cared for Tifa. After the emotional reunion and now with seeing them together, it was clear as day the two had shared a fond childhood together. Fond enough to be childhood sweethearts? Jessie was still trying to figure that out. One thing was certain she had never seen Tifa look at any other person this way. For two whole days since his arrival the martial artist had been a constant attachment to his side and in that time Tifa's eyes rarely left him, a glow and a permanent hint of a smile on her intrinsically kind features. Not that she could blame her best friend going on as-good-as surrogate sister, this Cloud guy certainly was handsome. If you were into that 'pretty-boy' kind of thing.

Sat on the far side of the basement room atop an old wooden crate that had once ferried Barret's punching bag, the shock red-head teenager averted her grin towards the bulky coding scanner she was absent-mindedly fumbling with in her lap. With hair that lusciously blonde, a small nose, soft delicate features and a flawless porcelain complexion even she was jealous of, Jessie reckoned with the right get-up he would make a very convincing woman.

Raising her light hazelnut eyes she discreetly gazed back across the chaotic room at the purple clad SOLDIER standing by himself, isolated and expressionless.

He pulled it off though she guessed, in a weird masculine kind of way.

"He has every reason to hate Shinra just as much as we do!"

Jessie's attention abandoned its uncharacteristic aesthetic critique of Cloud Strife and re-joined the room where Tifa had begun waving her arms in frustration.

Uh-oh.

It was usually a sign things were getting heated when Tifa started doing that.

"Look a' his freakin' eyes woman! This damn foo' IS Shinra! Christ it's bad enuff we let'im in here after showin' up outta nowhere like some half-dead whacko, sayin' he don't remember shit. Now ya' wanna let'im in on the mission Teef? Ya' outta ya' mind!?"

"He wants to join us! He can help more than your stubborn head has even stopped for a second to think about!" the equally stubborn and glaring barmaid barked back for what had to be about the third time now.

"The day I need 'elp from some hotshot SOLDIER punk is'tha day I let one chat me up an' take ma' ass on a date!"

They were going around and around in the same circle. Most of the time the engineer could tell early on which of them was going to win but here she was stumped. So to it seemed were her two other closest friends and Jessie frowned at her fellow crimson headband wearer when a ball of scrunched up paper rebounded against the side of her temple.

"So who you thinks winning?" Biggs followed up with a poke to her leg and a hushed voice, leaning precariously far back in his chair. On any normal day she would take advantage and kick him over in it to teach him a lesson.

Instead she simply shrugged the metal pauldrons on her shoulders up to her ears distractedly.

"I think he looks friendly" Wedge chipped in, ever the optimist. "… he doesn't say much though."

"Pfff. Yeah you got that right" Biggs returned, no longer needing to whisper to avoid being heard above the crescendo of shouting that was escalating in the room. "I think he's pretty badass. Hope Teef gets this, I gotta get a go on that sweet ass sword of his. Hey. Bet you fifteen gil I can lift it."

"You uhh… you still owe me thirty gi-…" Wedge attempted.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, not the time dude" Biggs flapped his hand dismissively. "What 'bout you Jess? Hey! Gaia to Zombie-girl."

She glanced irritably his way for half a second.

"I said what 'bout you? Hoping that he stays?"

She was already trying to decide that. Every ounce of logic and reasoning told the ungirly slum girl she should agree with Barret on this but looking at Cloud, his stare zoned out almost uncaring whether they cast him out or not, something reacted inside of Jessie. He seemed so lost, so surrendered to his fate that she was sure even without their help, he was going to make Shinra pay for whatever crime it was they had committed against him that had brought him to this point.

And she wanted to help.

"I think we should let him in" Jessie firmly commented, her voice carrying above the arguing. Surprising herself as much as it did the others who went quiet in an alarming almost comical unison.

All eyes fell upon her, astonishingly and most affecting of which were the SOLDIER's as for the first time his gaze left the empty abyss it had been aimlessly floating in for the last hour. Tifa's childhood friend from Nibelhiem made her the subject of his incandescent stare and she was quite taken aback when he sent her a small but definite half-nod of acknowledgement. She tried nodding back but the action transitioned awkwardly into staring down into her lap, finding she couldn't hold the incredibly intense eye contact for longer than a second. Mako disgusted her, mako enhancements disgusted her, she hated mako more than anything else on this planet. It was the reason she had lost everything and experienced the worst two years of her life before joining AVALANCHE. Usually she hated SOLDIER's to so she wasn't entirely sure what the hell was happening.

"… I mean… we're still a long way out from actually being ready for the mission. I think we could just see how it goes" she finished with staged nonchalance.

"… ? …. Ya' fer real Jess!?" Barret exclaimed disbelievingly, "how 'bout you? Ya' completely lost ya' mind aswell?"

Biggs was on all four legs of his chair again, scratching the back of his jet black hair uneasily.

"Well… I err… I think Jess has got a point B. It's a long time before all the fireworks happen so… we got plenty of time to find out if he's like some kind of spy… or wandering lunatic… no offense."

Tifa adopted a victorious hands-on-the-hips wide stance while Barret's human arm began to shake, his expression appearing as if his head was about to pop off.

"AN WHA' 'BOUT YOU!? YOU AGREEIN' TO THIS BULL SHIT!?"

Placing his arms on the table in front of him, Tifa's greatest culinary fan buried his head silently into them and went into hiding. Wedge didn't cope well with being shouted at or placed in the spotlight.

"You're nuts! Y'all nuts! THE WHOLE WORLDS GONE NUTS'!" the Coral gunman's bass voice boomed, storming away. "You want this spikey haired freak to get ya'll killed? Be my friggin' guest!"

"Where are you going?" Tifa despondently called after the man riding the retro pinball machine up and out of the secret hideout.

"TA' CALL PRESIDENT FUCKING SHINRA! SEE IF HE FANCIES JOININ' WHILE WE AT IT!"

The hidden elevator clanged to a stop on the floor above and pivoting around gingerly, Tifa offered a genuine albeit slightly embarrassed smile.

"Well Cloud. Welcome to the family."

Chapter 1 Part 2- First impression

Jessie didn't know what it was she had been expecting, some sort of drama perhaps? Something ground-breaking? She thought at least 'something' would happen after accepting the controversial new recruit into AVALANCHE. Two more days had passed since his admission and she hadn't so much as seen or heard anything from the ex-SOLDIER beyond his few occasional fleeting visits to and from Seventh Heaven. Often spotting him only from afar and in passing. It was somewhat disappointing, if she was honest she had been hoping for him to shake things up a bit or bring an interesting new dynamic to the group. Such was not the case and for all intents and purposes it was as if he never existed. He certainly gave no just reason for earning her continued unrelenting curiosity.

The young tech-whizz shook her head, readjusted her usual high-ponytail, re-shouldered her weighty pack and continued her thirty minute trek through the semi-crowded mid-morning foot traffic of sector seven. Even if he wasn't suffering from amnesia or did begin recovering his memories she would be the last person to learn more about him. That position was reserved exclusively to Tifa.

"OI YOU!"

Greatly startled from her distracted musings, Jessie's heart jumped into her throat and she softly glared across the beaten dirt road at her verbal assailant.

"Ooooohh that bag looks suspiciously heavy to me kid."

She rolled her eyes at the tuneful taunt, it didn't even surprise her to see Johnny working the door at the 'SandCrawler', a gambling hall by day, low-end fight club by night. In the years she'd known the man-child he'd worked almost every job under the sun. Or under the plate if you wanted to be morbidly literal about it.

"Do you get some sort of kick out of making people jump you git?"

Jessie didn't stop walking and leaning lazily against the doorframe he threw her a casual proud grin.

"Just doing my civic duties, you know it's not safe to be caught daydreaming around these parts like you just were."

She internally cringed.

"I wasn't daydreaming."

"Pah, lier. Hey Charlie's not gonna be happy when she finds out you've been ferreting through that scrapyard again."

"Well Charlie's not gonna find out unless you tell her so if she does, I know who I'm beating to a pulp" she threw a mock threatening glower over her shoulder and chuckled as did he.

"Woah, look who's talking all tough now just because she's got Tifa teaching her some moves!" the happy-go-lucky man called after her. "Speaking of which, you should get her down here! She could make some serious gil if she just laid that smackdown in the ring for once!"

Jessie waved the back of a dirty fingerless-gloved hand.

"Not gonna happen Johnny."

Chapter 1 Part 3- First impression

By the time Jessie navigated her way back through the city slum she had grown up in her entire life and reached the steps of Seventh Heaven, an intolerable film of perspiration had covered her bare arms, face and neckline. Climbing the front steps she would normally take two at a time in heavy leather combat boots, she entered the bar currently closed for evening prep. Grateful as ever for the feint pleasant smell of sweet alcohols and cleanliness it always had.

"Baaack!" she called, dumping her bag as soon as she could in middle of the floor with a heavy thud and stretching out her thoroughly worked out back muscles.

Barely turning from the back counter behind the bar, Tifa held up pen wielding hand, the house phone clamped to her ear by shoulder and tilted face. Jessie recognised that hands-free, preoccupied, slightly stressed, note scribbling posture, she was on the phone to a supplier. It always stressed Tifa out. It seemed the silky chocolate haired barmaid enjoyed the bartending part of the business but the business side of the business, not so much.

One little person however could always be expected to be in high spirits and free of such burdens.

"JESS-JESS!"

She grinned instantaneously.

"Heyyyyy Marley!"

Jessie went to one knee and openly laughed at the way the tiny adorable girl came dashing into view from behind the counter. The funny way short-legged four year olds ran.

"I gotta premeranotion today!"

"That's great!" she cheered picking the girl becoming rather heavy up at arm's length, never failing to feel her heart burst with warmth at Marlene's loving enthusiasm. "So what are you today?"

"I'm the fruit decisioner!"

"Well that's an important job, what with all the scurvy ridden pirates we get in here."

The child being dangled away from her at eye-level giggled though slightly confused, then patted both Jessie's arms a couple of times stiffly.

"You're icky and stinky."

Jessie cracked up with a short burst of laughter.

"Gee thanks! You know Marley, please remind me sometime to teach you what a white lie is."

"NOOOOOO" the inherently honest girl cried playfully, squirming in mid-air then reaching far forward to grab onto both her boobs which Jessie retracted from.

"Marlene! Get out of here you cheeky little Cactuar" she exclaimed putting AVALANCHE's toddler down who scampered away snickering.

For some reason she had started doing that a lot lately. Fortunately Tifa bore most of the brunt of that newly acquired curiosity.

"Teef I'm jumping in the shower."

Another absent-minded hand-wave from the pre-occupied negotiator.

Exiting through the backdoor Jessie didn't wait to start peeling her sticky navy crop top overhead while slipping her boots off simultaneously with her feet somewhere near the bottom of the stairs. Her destination was the shower in Bigg's old cave, now a spare room after he and Wedge had got their own 'lad-pad' a stone throw away down the road. They had always talked about doing it but with Marlene getting older now and needing her own space, it had spurred the move a couple months back.

Instantly glad to be free from her disgusting top, Jessie crossed the landing bare from the waist up bar the simple black bra she wore. Passing by a shower along the way ironically enough.

As she still hadn't gotten around to fixing that one's heater system yet, the one in the spare room was the only shower capable of producing hot water for the time being. After finally finding the perfect sized metal bracket for a twelve-piston hollow chambered engine in Charlie's scrapyard earlier, it wouldn't be getting done anytime soon either.

A rush of excitement quickened the red-head engineers pace and she started undoing the first of the buttons down the front of her trousers. At last her long-term project, project Fenrir, was taking shape!

The thought had got the tech-fanatics blood pumping so when Jessie threw open the door and entered the spare room, she practically jogged in and when she did three things happened.

She yelped in a humiliatingly sharp octave.

She jumped dramatically backwards straight into the wall behind, wide eyed like a thief being caught red-handed.

She threw her arms across her stomach and the portion of her breasts that her bra didn't cover in an alarmed attempt to hide herself.

Across the room stood even more bare across the torso than her with nothing but a towel wrapped around the waist, a damp Cloud Strife stood staring blankly back at her unmoving.

Now at that point she could have gracefully salvaged her dignity by apologising calmly and leaving. To her mortification she decided to stand there for near on twenty-seconds giving him her best half-naked goldfish impression instead, opening and closing her mouth repeatedly. Twenty long seconds of looking like a complete idiot that escalated to become a moment that was all together horrifying. She'd never frozen up before, it was a strange experience and it took one movement of the ex-SOLDIER wordlessly straightening up to break it.

She averted her eyes.

"SORRY!… I!..."

She ran for the door flustered.

"Teef!... SORRY!..."

She paused at the door, looking back again like a first-class twit.

"Tifa didn't tell me!"

She fled the room with an unnecessarily loud bang.

Chapter 1 Part 4- First impression

"Ain't no damn way on this side'a a thousand years ma' baby girl is sleepin' under the same roof as any SOLDIER!"

Those had been Barret's words, when the hell had they changed? And when were they planning on having the courtesy to discuss it with her? Before she walked in on him as a half-naked mess would certainly have been nice.

Although Jessie's face still burned with embarrassment every time she thought about it, laying there wide awake she couldn't help but silently laugh at the ridiculous run-in from earlier. Him half naked and wet, her half naked and sweaty with her knickers slightly on show, floundering like she had seen a three headed Elphadunk.

Well it was either laugh about it or cry.

… Gaia she hoped first impressions weren't as long-lasting as some people made them out to be.

With her thin duvet tucked up to under her arms, Jessie un-scrunched the covers, closed her eyes and exhaled.

It hadn't been that big a deal and she would never get to sleep if she didn't stop thinking about it.

What felt around twenty or thirty minutes passed before she opened them again onto pitch black darkness and though she couldn't see it, she turned against her pillow to look at the wall on the other side of the room.

This was hopeless, there was no way she could sleep, it was just too strange. She was sleeping in a room next to a SOLDIER, their most common and hated enemy. A first class no less, sleeping no more than twenty feet away from her and she was simply unable to get him off her mind. A rather common occurrence of late.

Jessie continued staring, wide awake as can be.

Just on the other side of that wall he would be laying there, freaky glowing eyes, massive going on borderline ridiculous spiky blonde hair...

Jessie was barely aware of herself shifting her leg under the cover and even less aware of moving her hand so it rested on her thigh.

… defined chest and arms.

The female engineer paused, initially neither surrendering nor resisting, uncertain and caught off guard. Another exhale escaped her lips, shakier this time like her fingers, causing a light tingly stroking sensation against the inside of her leg. Slowly she ran those trembling digits up her thigh, swallowing as she did, her teeth gently biting down against her bottom lip.

… defined abs coated in a hot sheen of water droplets.

Jessie clamped her hand between her legs, firm and above the thin material of the small pair of bed shorts she wore. Somehow it still reached the special sensitive nerves that were underneath. Auto-pilot kicked in from that point on, the same hand releasing its hold to twist its way down through the soft band encircling her hips. Yes it was auto-pilot but one she was very much aware of, one triggered by urges that she was consciously giving into because they were always simply too pointless and too much effort to fight. Random urges, unpredictable urges, meaningless urges, urges that wouldn't go away. Urges that could come from nowhere, from anywhere, from a stray thought or a sporadic imagining.

From an accidental first-hand encounter with a total strangers lean, sculpted, athletic body.

The young woman breathed in as she slowly moved her fingers further down into her shorts causing the muscles in her legs and lower body to tense. She mindlessly explored, searching for something, the heat quickly spreading across her body as she did so. When she found it Jessie's eyes snapped shut and her head pushed back harder into the pillow, a noise fluttering in the back of her throat. She started the movements once more and she quickly hit her spot again, harder this time, casting her mind adrift. Clockwork, anti-clockwork, up, down, sidewards, aimless instinctive little movements building pace along with a quickening rise and fall in her chest.

On the infrequent occasions Jessie did this she usually had to work for it, to actively extend her imagination but the thoughts were coming effortlessly now. Almost against her own will.

Of him advancing towards her rather than staying glued on the far side of that room, noticing her, noticing each other. Knowing what they both wanted. Perhaps he would kiss her? Kiss more than just her lips? Grab her close and run those eyes she detested over her body acceptingly?

The female tech-fanatics leg twitched and her pelvis rolled, everything getting hazier now.

Perhaps he would be gentle with her? Or perhaps he wouldn't? Would he maintain all those disciplined years he had inevitably spent training to control and master all that strength? Would she be able break it? Would she be desirable enough? Would she be able to make him this hot?

Back arching, toes twisting through the bed sheets, Jessie's hips kicked forward and her free hand automatically transitioned into pulling on the hem of her shots. They slid away with ease, obeying her now desperate need for total freedom without restraint.

And when she reached out to catch that one long droplet running down his chest, how would it feel to have all that strength right there beneath her fingertips? All for her.

Her hand was moving rhythmically in one constant side-to side motion now. She had found her pattern, her stride, sending concentrated waves of incomparable sensation into her core.

And when he had found it to, he would look up at her, not down. Look up from what he was doing and she would look back and lose control. Lose control as golden sides of hair brushed pleasurably against the insides of her parted legs. But what if he did look down? What would that feel like?

Jessie lifted the nylon fabric of her grey vest top passed her mid-section, all the way up and over her breasts. Then returned to tenderly scratch down the length of her own abdomen riddled with butterflies.

What would his steamy grooved abs feel like grinding against hers? Not necessarily just his abs, or his face, but any cute guy she was attracted to who cared about her? … but then again why not him? Why couldn't he be the one running his manly, rough, sword-wielding hands over her chest?

… because he was Tifa's.

A pleasurable moan escaped her lips as her hand travelled upward from her stomach, palming one of the modest soft mounds with the tips of her crimson hair tickling the mid-point of her back. She knew it was a bad thought, one she shouldn't have had and yet because she knew it was bad it pushed her straight to the top level of euphoria.

She would claim him, pull him down by the shoulder blades so his body moved and rubbed flat against hers. He would be the one to fill the empty space and she would move her hips for him like this, like that, like she was doing now and he would like it. He would be the first to see the woman beneath the unfeminine clothing. The first to see and lust over her with the eyes of a lover rather than seeing her as 'just another one of the lads' because of her tomboyish hobbies.

She was peaking now, she wouldn't last much longer, the heat and the wet ready to take her. Her panting was heavy she could hear that much, it remained hushed and breathy for the time being but it was getting louder. Releasing her dampening chest the red-head grabbed onto her quilt, pulled it up and uncaringly clamped a scrunched section of the material into her mouth. She was going to get louder and while no normal person would hear her, she knew SOLDIER had enhanced hearing so there was a chance if she wasn't careful that he would hear her.

The thought that her groans could reach his ears if she simply let them didn't just tip Jessie over the final edge, it threw her over. Every muscle in her body tightened, her back curved and her head shot backwards in a long drawn-out muffled cry as she experienced one of the fiercest climax's she had ever had. An easy ten solid seconds of unhinged rapture that she thought would never stop, causing tears to prick the corners of her pale chestnut eyes and consuming her entire consciousness.

When the crashing explosion of satisfying release did cease it was abrupt, the tension flooding instantaneously from her limbs and discarding her back to the mattress totally spent.

It was a long time, the longest time ever before the quivering stopped and Jessie bashfully withdrew her fingers from the area now far too sensitive to touch. She blinked up at multiple hazy spots of light though she was in complete darkness, her breathing gradually decelerating back to normal.

Now that she had not been expecting.


	2. First encounter

With her legs wrapped viciously around his strong narrow waist and her weight being effortlessly supported by both his hands planted firmly on her backside, one thought popped into Jessie's mind.

_This is weird._

Her mouth was moving fervently, tasting Cloud's lips aggressively, hungrily. Her hands were exploring wildly, desperately, greedily, still not brave enough to venture to that hard area she could feel pressing between her legs but Gaia, how she wanted to. She thought it was weird because this craving she was feeling, this level of hunger driving her actions, it seemed out of place being as she was a virgin and all. How could you be hungry for something that you've never experienced before?

She didn't contemplate the matter for long, Jessie didn't care anymore, all she knew was every part of her body was screaming for his attention and none of the touching, kissing or exploring between them could happen fast enough. Her entire body going into sensual overdrive shivered against his. She could still hardly believe this was happening, he had walked into the workshop out the back of seventh heaven and it had started so suddenly. In fact thinking on it now, she couldn't even remember how it had started in the first place but gods it didn't matter, she just needed to consume this man for her own.

Absently running her hands into his hair she took her frustration out on the soft golden peaks, pulling the strands hard, maybe too hard as their tongues lewdly entwined with one another. In response the ex-SOLDIER and new AVALANCHE recruit made a deep pleasurable rumbling noise in the back of his throat that was music to her ears and after that everything went just that little bit crazier. Carrying her in their intimate raunchy embrace, Cloud stumbled his way over to the back wall of the garage through the maze of machinery and clutter of negligently discarded tooling that was lying about until the back of Jessie's thighs hit the edge of a table. Awkwardly relinquishing one hand from her ass her newly acquired pleasure swept his arm across the workbench behind her in one forceful motion, throwing everything off the surface to replace her on it. The young red-head winced slightly as the sound of numerous heavy metal objects went crashing loudly to the floor but she giggled it off nervously. In return a look flashed across the blonde's prettyishly handsome face that was something so tantalisingly close to being a smile for her but not a smile.

_Minerva would she ever see him smile?_

That thought and her giggle had little time to occupy her brain however as suddenly the hot guy between her legs grabbed the material of her dark-green khaki tank top and tugged with inhuman strength. The material covered in patches of black engine grease ripped apart inelegantly, making her squeak as the entirety of her torso and plain black bra burst onto show. Unlike before Jessie didn't hide this time, she remained displayed on the table for him to see with cheeks now burning fiercely but not as fiercely as her body. The boisterous action of him literally tearing the clothes off her body sending Jessie to a new high of excitement which peaked ever higher when slightly calloused but surprisingly smooth hands ran over her chest and across her exposed midsection. The female engineer shuddered once more, her stomach muscles cramping giddily under his touch and a gasp laced with lust escaped her reddened lips as those same hands popped open the first of the three buttons on her tight-fitting jeans.

_Skinny jeans? When the hell in the last two years had she ever worn skinny jeans?_

"Clouuud" she hissed as he expertly conquered the last of her buttons and teasingly slipped his fingers in to the waistband to take a firm hold of her trousers.

It felt so strange using his name that way but her head had turned to mush and she couldn't help it. He still stared at her questioningly.

"Just hurry up already" was all Jessie could think to say.

There it was again, the smile that wasn't quite a smile.

Obeying her plea he pulled on her trousers and when she lifted her hips but an inch up from the crude heavy-duty work table, they came away in one go almost along with her underwear.

_Skinny-jeans never came off that easily in real life._

Reduced to nothing but tattered rags, black bra and plain white panties, the eighteen year old tech-whizz was a mess of heavy breathing and anticipation waiting to explode, waiting for him to do whatever he was going to do to her next. Anything he wanted. Cloud saw this and adventurously picked up the only object that remained on the table to use it on her and it made Jessie's body react incredibly. Picking up a hefty metal K-sized bolt spanner he guided it between her opened legs and the woman watched owlishly as the heavy silver object moved towards her damp panties. When it made contact against her sweet spot she inhaled sharply and groaned. It was hard, slightly too hard and the metal was uncomfortably cold against such a delicate area, but the excitement of such a garish item she had an express tomboyish interest in being used in such a way, made what should have felt unenjoyable, intensely enjoyable.

Hand snapping forward she clutched onto Cloud's muscled forearm as he worked the flat of the tool in small circular motions against her heat. Not to push him away or make him stop, but for support and grounding as her entire being sunk into a misty haze of euphoria.

"H-h-holy shit… h-how does that feel so good?" she hummed, seizing up with delight.

Cloud licked his lips, approval shining in his mesmerizing baby-blue luminous orbs as he opened his mouth to speak…

**Chapter 2 Part 2- First encounter**

Jessie's eyes opened onto the familiar sight of her bedroom ceiling, always distinctly identifiable by the blackened scorched ring that tainted the white surface from a homemade rocket she had accidentally set off in her room once.

_Of course she wouldn't remember what his voice sounded like, she hadn't heard him speak since… actually… when had she heard Cloud Strife speak?_

Brushing a bleary hand across her face with a groan she sat up in bed and shook her head.

Why was she having sexual dreams about Cloud Strife? About that reclusive and downright anti-social pretty-boy who didn't even fit the profile of the type of guy she was typically attracted to? It was three days ago she had walked in on and shamefully masturbated to the thought of him after getting stupidly hot and flustered from what she had seen. Why was it cropping up again?

_Because she had been fretting all day yesterday about getting Tifa to ask him to come down to the workshop later today so she could harvest his blood could be a likely reason._

Throwing her duvet back quite irately the tech fanatic swung her bare legs out from her single bed and hopped out with ease, feeling far from tired or groggy just like she did most mornings. It was ridiculous, she had only seen the guy shirtless, it wasn't exactly hard-core pornography and she was acting like a pathetic horny teenage school-girl about it.

"Get it together Jessie."

Crossing her room to find a long pair of pyjama bottoms to put over her small bed shorts, she mentally noted with dry amusement that technically she was still young enough to be a school girl. If she had been one of those privileged princess' that lived above the plate then staying on in school until she was eighteen might have been an option in life.

But she wasn't privileged and she most certainly wasn't a princess.

Putting on the longer concealing clothing Jessie left her small bedroom at the end of the hall above seventh heaven and begrudgingly made for the still broken shower on the landing as opposed to the one in the guest room. Even if Cloud Strife barely ever slept in there, because from what she had gathered from Tifa and seen herself he barely slept at all, Jessie was not voluntarily going to run the risk of running into the same embarrassing situation as before, ever. She also never usually felt the need to put more clothes on in the morning but since the ex-SOLDIER had started irregularly occupying the spare room she had started becoming a bit more self-conscious about her attire around the house. Which was silly really, it wasn't as if she could flash to him much more than she already had.

Sneaking quickly across the hall like a thief in her own home the red-head ducked into the unoccupied bathroom, closed the door behind her and locked it. Next she ran the shower, stripped bare and stared fearfully at the cascading jet of water. Gaia this was going to be horrible.

_Oh well, a cold shower is exactly what you need, you weird pervert._

After she had endured the harshest, breath-constricting, freezing cold shower known to man and legged it back to her room in nothing but a wrapped towel, Jessie shut the door and slumped her back against it with immense relief. It was so dumb and she knew it. Why was she so intent on avoiding him? Also why was she judging him as being anti-social when she had not attempted to speak more than two-words to him either? It was hypocritical and he probably thought she was just as weird.

The weird stripper girl that sneaks around the house and asks if she can have your blood.

Jessie slid down the door and despaired. She had been constantly fretting about meeting Cloud Strife today down at the workshop, hence the dream, but now she was utterly dreading it. He was going to think she was a complete nutcase. Who asked to take someone's blood as their opening introduction? But she needed his blood, people were relying on her to create a bomb that would be strong enough to blow up an entire industrial reactor and unless they magically found a way to ferry and pack 2 tonnes of C-4 into the reactors core, they needed something that reacted with Mako. Something that could start a volatile chain reaction with the highly classified substance, that was the only way they could blow a place that big up with a bomb small enough to carry.

Bomb making was simple chemistry, she was always good at chemistry but to figure out what could cause such a reaction Jessie needed a sample to work with, she needed Mako. The original plan had been for Barret and Biggs to get their hands on some black market crap that gang members and low life's typically used for botch job mediocre enhancements. The appearance of a first class however presented a far less dangerous means to get what they needed, not to mention being a first class the Mako in Cloud's bloodstream would be of the finest quality. He agreed to do it but that still didn't change the fact she felt she was setting the worst possible first impression on their new team member and was going to be forced into a room with him to take his blood. What would they talk about? What was she going to say? Jessie had a tendency to become socially awkward when she got nervous.

Unhugging her knees the towel clad girl decided to quit moping about it, got up off the floor and threw open her wardrobe to get dressed. This wasn't like her at all. Her brief surge of resolve quickly dissolved again as the dilemma of what to wear and the sight of her selection of clothes overwhelmed her in a truly disheartening volume of dark greys, brown, blues and blacks. Baggy cargo trousers, bland three-quarter length trousers, un-shapely stiff nylon trousers. Rummaging through the hanging items, Jessie concluded that she could quite easily have been looking in Bigg's wardrobe except a good third of hers were also covered in permanent feint black petrol marks from where she was forever getting covered in crap. Her finger nails also bore a similar stain around the edges to, no matter how hard she scrubbed.

A long shaky sigh took to the sky. She'd like to say this was the first time her inability to act girly or look like Tifa had got her down but she would be lying. Over the last year she was finding more and more that she falling out of love with the tomboyish fashion, or maybe it wasn't so much the fashion but the growing want to be desired. To be recognised as a female.

Jessie rummaged faster. Surely she had to have something that at this moment in time didn't make her want to torch her entire wardrobe? Item after item flicked by depressingly until right at the end of the line, she came across her only pair of skinny jeans and couldn't help but smirk impishly. So they did exist, she hadn't worn them in years or realised she even still had them. Her brain had subliminally skipped over them all this time until making a dramatic reappearance in an erotic dream of all places. They were about the most feminine pair of trousers she owned and so in deciding to try them on for the hell of it, Jessie laid the jeans on her bed, dropped her towel, threw on an appropriate black thong and set to squeezing into the tight fitting number. The struggle in front of her cracked bedroom mirror was almost comical, a struggle which escalated into pure warfare the further they advanced up her thighs. Soon she was hopping and thrashing on the spot trying to conquer the last ten inches but gave up with a huff and stared helplessly at the most dominant obstructive curve on her body in the reflection.

_At least her ass had grown since she was sixteen, that was kinda comforting. If only her chest had done the same._

Distracted Jessie handled her just-about-a-handful mounds and inspected her whole body in the mirror underwhelmed.

Why couldn't she be like Tifa? With never-ending long legs and a chest twice her size? The martial artist had a figure that Jessie idolised as being the perfect proportions.

Giving up and recognising there was no way in a golden Chocobo's chance she was getting into the jeans hanging halfway up her thighs, she squirmed them back of and glanced at her usual selection.

"Dark navy combats it is then."

_She was going to die alone._

**Chapter 2 Part 3- First encounter**

In a chorus of unnerving juddering and rusted screeching sounds the uncomfortably dodgy elevator came to a stop on the fourth floor of what could be considered a pretty sweet apartment but a rather poor excuse of a penthouse. Using the newest addition to her keys she let herself in like always to the sound of intense gunfire, crossed into 'the den' and dumped herself into the ancient brown leather sofa next to Biggs while putting one thick boot up on the table in front.

"Yo you gotta get in here. Check it, fourty-two kill streak. I think schools must be on holiday or somethin' coz' these dingbats I'm farming have gotta be six year olds. HA! Fucking noobs."

She rolled her eyes as the virtual super-soldier absently lobbed her over a controller.

"Looks like it's time for me to show you a true reign of terror then."

Hearing her voice a cheery round pudgy face appeared at the kitchen door across the way and a floral oven mit waved sweetly in her direction.

Jessie grinned and sent a small amused wave back.

"You're later than normal Jess? I'm making Kalm puffs" Wedge twinkled proudly.

"Yeah what the hell gives? Do another all-nighter on my ride?"

Jessie shrugged at the screen as she got dropped into a battlefield and half-assedly began obliterating the opposition.

"Firstly, Fenrir is not your ride he's mine and you will have to be super nice to me if you even want to so much as sit on him when he's finished. Secondly… I uh... had a bit of an outfit crisis this morning."

Her best friend lounging in nothing but black shorts, commando-grey vest and identical to her red bandana, snorted a short explosive laugh until he realised she was being serious and spared her a very brief frowning glance.

"You look normal to me."

Jessie squinted at her fellow black-haired video-gamer and flicked him in the side of the head.

"Hey! You know what I mean. Normal as in your plain good old usual self" Biggs protested.

Jessie flicked him in the head harder.

"Hey! Can you stop that!? Oh by the way, when you go back can you take Teef's Walkman with you? And uh… if she asks, it totally had a crack on the front before she lent it to me-FUCK YOU CAMPER NOOB!"

"No it didn't" a soft voice sang from the kitchen.

"Wedge! The hell man!? Are you trying to get me punched in the head!?"

"You should be honest then, Tifa won't be angry with you if you're honest."

"Wait" Jessie interjected, "why can't you take it yourself? You're coming to the bar later right?"

"Nah, gotta work. Me an' the big guy are re-coning in sector one… AGAIN. I'm telling you, it's a dead cert that it's the best one for us to hit first but ya' know what B's like. Wants to check everything over fifty billion times. Does my sweed in sometimes."

Jessie internally withered and then she got shot, her attention span for gaming virtually non-existent.

"Woah, did you just get wrecked? Are you feeling alright? What's up?"

"Nothing" she lied. "I was just hoping you could stop by later is all."

"Why? I thought you had work later to? Going dracular mode on our boy Cloud."

_Our boy?_

Jessie frowned… and got shot.

"Yeah I am. That's why I wanted you to come. Hey Wedge, you're free later right?"

The Tifa-trained chef popped his head around the door with an apologetic face.

"Yeah but… it's blood. I'm not very good with blood. S-sorry Jessie."

Of course Wedge wasn't good with blood. When Jessie slashed her arm that time on the corner of a harnessing jig and he walked in on them while Tifa was patching her up, the man had vomited and passed out, simultaneously.

"Ugh! Well this is just bloody great guys."

"I don't get it, why do you want one of us to come along with you anyway?" Biggs asked confusedly.

"To be there."

"Eh?"

"To be there."

"To be there?"

"Yes to be there! I… don't wanna be alone with him…" Jessie petered off with embarrassment. "And besides, it's a chance for us all to get to talk to him. He's a part of AVALANCHE to you know and we've never even spoken to-"

"I have."

"-him. You have?" Jessie parroted dumbly.

"Yeah we've spoke, a couple times actually. We said some things ya' know, guy to guy like. I mean… sure HE didn't say much but… we was defo on a level. He's pretty chill."

"WHAT!? Why didn't you tell me!?" Jessie squawked, sitting bolt upright.

"Woah take it easy will ya'. What's the big deal? I bet Wedge didn't tell you either that he spoke with him."

"You've spoken to him too!?"

Leaning against the doorframe Wedge nodded happily.

"He said he liked my disguises and that I've got a bright future ahead of me."

Jessie flopped back against the couch. Great, now even Wedge was more sociable and outgoing than she was.

"I can't believe you guys!"

"Am I missing something? 'Cause I'm seriously not seeing what the big deal is here" Biggs remarked. "Where are you going?"

"Well if neither of you are coming then I'm gonna go and start setting up. By myself!" she snapped moodily.

"What? Why are you being like this Jess? You know you've been acting really weird lately. I don't get why you need one of us to be there, it ain't as if he's some sort of maniac or sex pest. If he was I'm pretty sure Teef would be the first one to find out about it."

Whirling around at the edge of the living room Jessie shot Biggs a seething glare.

"And what's that supposed to mean!?"

"Nothing! Geez, the hells wrong with you!?"

"I AM A GIRL TO YOU KNOW!"

"Yeah… yeah I know that! If we're being technical about it. That is why I said it!"

"IF WERE BEING TECH-?" Jessie advanced a number of steps towards Bigg's vehemently but stopped and snatched the music player off the living room table. "I'm telling Tifa you cracked her Walkman and I hope she does punch you in the head!"

"Woah woah! Why are you getting offended at that!? I'm saying he would be more likely to make a move on Teef first because you're more like one of the guys. IT'S A COMPLIMENT!"

"Screw you! You jerk!"

"Hey guys, l-let's not argue" Wedge teetered into the room with a steaming tray of pastries in his over mit.

"I'm not arguing! I'm leaving!"

"But… but my Kalm puffs are finished."

"Then wrap me up some for later!"

"But… but they're best eaten when there just cooked."

From halfway out the door Jessie stormed back into the apartment, snatched one of the condiments off the tray and thoughtlessly shoved it in her mouth.

"There! Happyhhhhhh!?"

"… you've burnt your mouth haven't you?" Wedge called after her as she resumed her enraged exit.

"Yesh! Yesh I hash!"

**Chapter 2 Part 4- First encounter**

Fingers laced together on the prepped and sanitised table in front of her, Jessie sat stiffly in her chair, twiddling her thumbs while scanning apprehensively around the room. She had tidied the workshop up a little but not much. With a stack of tools, gadgets and specialist handmade equipment piled on one side of the room and a large white dust sheet thrown over Fenrir's skeleton in the corner, it was as good as it was going to get.

She was nervous, not just about meeting the ex-SOLDIER face to face for the first time after their embarrassing run-in but also for the fact she was going to have to draw his blood. The syringe, needle, bag, tubing, antiseptic swabs and plasters in front of her becoming growingly more ominous by the second. She had studiously researched the correct and safe way to do this but that is all it was, research. Applying that knowledge was another matter entirely and now the longer she sat staring at the unpleasant items before her, the closer she got to feeling like she was going to pull a Wedge.

Distracted by her queasiness the metal pauldrons on Jessie's shoulders jolted skyward along with the rest of her body when the door of the workshop was un-expectantly opened after some time and in came tall blonde spikes. Her adrenaline surged.

"Cloud! Hi!"

Thankfully Jessie just about managed to restrain herself from animatedly jumping out of her seat or hiding under the table, she wasn't sure which.

"I mean uh… come in, take a seat… if you want to" she finished casually, trying to recover from the over-dramatic bombardment of a greeting she had given him.

The ex-SOLDIER standing stationary in the doorway cast his eyes cautionately over the place once before approaching the seat she had her hand held openly towards which she subsequently quickly withdrew into her lap.

"Sorry it's a bit of a mess right now… well actually it's usually worse… not that I'm a really messy person or anything but… um, never mind."

_What are you going on about? Shut up Jessie!_

She swallowed and restarted as Cloud mutely pulled out the seat in front of her.

"What I'm trying to say is, thanks for coming."

The darkly dressed first nodded and sat down, his leg accidentally coming straight into contact with hers beneath the table and this time Jessie really did jump up from her seat.

"SORRY!... I mean!… n-nothing never mind."

The red-faced red-head hastily sat back down and immediately busied herself with unpackaging the medal supplies from their protective wrappers while praying that the floor would swallow her up whole. Silently she cursed herself and told herself to relax and start again.

"You probably think I'm a bit weird asking Tifa to ask you to do this so out of the blue. Sorry. I know we haven't spoken much."

_Ever_

"But I promise I don't usually ask people for their blood the first time I meet them" she forced a tiny laugh, trying to make the situation light-hearted.

Jessie glanced up to gauge his reaction to see if it was working and straight away withdrew her stare back to the task at hand when she saw he was observing her intently with a neutral expression.

"So... Cloud… how are you settling into AVALANCHE? I know Barret gave you a bit of a hard time at first and I've not really taken the time to talk to you. You probably think I'm really anti-social so I'm sorry for that."

Jessie exhaled with frustration, unable to separate the thin fiddly plastic flap of the syringe packet to open it.

"Sorry I know I'm saying sorry a lot. I've just been kinda busy lately… not that I'm saying that's any excuse, it's not."

"I don't."

It was such a surprise to finally hear his calm, mid-tenor, easy-on-the-ears voice that the female engineer very nearly dropped the finally unwrapped plunger on the floor.

"That you're anti-social, I don't think that" Cloud clarified further.

A couple seconds passed in which Jessie took in the tired looking swordsman and his response, still amazed she had heard him speak. So he was capable of it.

"Oh… well I'm glad" she smiled genuinely across the table, already feeling slightly more at ease.

_What exactly had she been expecting? Some terrible or demonic sounding monster?_

Plunger and bag hooked up together with the half meter of tubing, safety capped needle plugged and antiseptic wipe ready to go, Jessie looked at Cloud's arm apologetically.

"Are you still happy to do this? Did Tifa explain everything enough about why we're doing this?"

"Yes."

Taking the hint he turned an arm over and placed it on the table. Jessie exhaled as her time to step up to the plate arrived.

"Ok, if you get uncomfortable with it and want to stop at any time, you just tell me Cloud" she insisted firmly looking him in the eye.

The light-skinned Nibel nodded.

Setting herself to the task at hand Jessie reached out and took a tentative, kind of awkward grip of Cloud's forearm, feeling the muscle beneath twitch and seeing his bicep tense. Quickly recognising that pulling his arm closer while being hunched forward herself was not going to work, Jessie closed the distance by shuffling her chair closer. Once more their legs came into contact beneath the table but the young engineer closed her eyes for a half-second and steeled herself to ignore it. Mouth dry and hands not nearly as steady as she would like she took a firmer grip on his arm, looked among the easy to spot veins in his distractingly defined arm to locate the best spot the Junon medical journal had recommended for this and set to wiping and cleaning the area in small gentle circular motions. It was soothing and at the same time unnerving to do. Something uncomfortably intimate to be doing with someone who had once been a SOLDIER, especially while their knees in light contact under the table was hovering constantly on the edge of her mind.

"Well Cloud, you're the best patient I've ever had so far" she quipped, an automatic coping mechanism to try and speak away the uneasy butterflies she was feeling. "I'm going to put it in now ok?"

"Sure" was his unbothered response as she uncapped the rather gruesomely long hypodermic spike.

Taking that as her green light Jessie very warily crept the needle closer to his arm, taking it slow more for own sake to keep her composure and focus on not freaking out which she was very much on the precipice of doing. She went in to make the insertion and was about an inch away from making it when to her alarm a startling shout of pain was released from Cloud and even though she knew she hadn't touched him, Jessie still recoiled dramatically while apologizing on reflex.

"Ah! Oh god! I'm Sorry!"

Pale brown eyes stretched wide, the red-head gaped at Cloud clutching the side of his head with his free arm, eyes squeezed shut with a hiss escaping through clenched teeth. He looked like he was having a severe migraine attack.

"H-hey are you alright!?"

"Yeah" the blonde powered through his pain to speak, quite clearly not alright.

"… a-are you sure? You don't seem…"

"I'm fine." It was sometime before he spoke again. "Carry on."

Hesitantly she did so, picking up on the edge in his voice and not wanting to question him on what that just was. One thing was for certain, it was very peculiar and it had shaken her up that much more than she already was. The girl figured being as he was once a SOLDIER he would be use to needles, being first class Cloud must have had hundreds in his time. Maybe that was it? Maybe her action had reminded him of something that was traumatic for him or triggered off something from his forgotten past? Jessie knew a bit about having something traumatising in your past and respected that it was not something you wanted people questioning you about so she proceeded without saying anything.

"Thankyou" came the surprising response after she had successfully managed to insert the needle into his arm without any drama this time.

Making a few positional adjustments to his heavy arm and with the see-through tubing beginning to fill with an unnaturally vivid crimson, Jessie bobbed her head.

"I understand... I think. Won't be too long now. I won't take much. I know you're a busy guy and you've probably got a million others things to be…"

"Not really."

"… oh."

"Why did you think that?"

Jessie bashfully observed Cloud tilting his head at her, feeling uncomfortably tiny under his close curious stare.

"I… guess it's because I don't see you around the bar often. You seem to be off doing your own thing most of the time. Wh-which is cool by the way."

"I thought that was best for everyone. I make you all uncomfortable because I was SOLDIER."

Though it was true, a pang of gilt churned in the eighteen year olds stomach regardless. Guilt that his elusiveness was attributed to him not being made to feel welcome and not because he was off on secret, personal missions as she had often speculated him to be.

"Ugh. Cloud I'm such a jerk. I don't want you to feel like that" she whispered sincerely. "I admit it I was pretty uncertain about you at first but Biggs, Wedge, Tifa, Barret, Marlene, AVALANCHE, they're all like family to me and you're a part of that now. I'd like us to get to know each other. I don't want you to feel like an outsider."

Jessie internally winced at her words.

_Was that being a bit too forward?_

"You're not uncomfortable?"

Her wince became a deep rooted cringe. How could she say no when she most likely had 'uncomfortable' written all over her face right now.

"Not about you being an ex-SOLDIER, no." _About the leg touching business you don't even seem to be noticing, yes._

"… I see."

A time passed where neither of them spoke and Jessie busied herself with undoing a plaster for the donors arm while her head worked at a thousand thoughts a minute. Thinking of all the questions she wanted to ask him but there was one in particular that slipped out freely without her even meaning for it to.

"Cloud, do you think we're making a difference here? With AVALANCHE and blowing up the reactor I mean?"

"Not really."

Somehow it didn't surprise her to hear that as his response.

Brown eyes held blue and the longer they did and the deeper she delved to see if that was truly what he felt, the less Jessie believed him. There was something in there she could see it, a certainly well concealed but existent part of him that informed the engineer's instinct he cared more than he was letting on.

"So then why are you here?"

"The money."

_That's right, they were paying him. Tifa had waited an entire week before dropping Barret that little detail._

"And is that the only reason?"

Jessie refused to take her gaze off his and let any hint of hidden thought or emotion escape her notice, not that she could even if she had wanted to. The way his face read an expressionless blank totally contradicting to eyes swimming in a complexity of emotions was captivating to observe. It didn't even clock in Jessie's mind until after he shrugged his shoulders that staring into a blokes eyes for nearly an entire minute straight was far from being a normal thing to do.

"I guess. How much more of my blood do you need?"

Being reminded of the see-through medical bag hanging from the table filling with blood and noticing she had taken nearly twice as much from him as she had intended, Jessie urgently jumped into action.

"Ah! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to take that much! Sorry sorry!"

She removed the needle from his arm with delicate haste, plastered the puncture wound up promptly and the second she had done so, the trained fighter made no delay in taking his freedom and heading for the door. Ten minutes ago Jessie would have been affronted by the abrupt action but now she simply smiled in deeper understanding. Before he left she called out to him, catching him at the door.

"Cloud. You're going to be alright."

The first stayed there, half-in half-out the door with his back turned.

"You're going to get your memories back. I promise."

Cloud's physicality shifted and half-turning his head to the side he acknowledged her from the corner of his eye.

"Thanks Jessie."

That was the first time he ever spoke her name.


	3. First touch

Standing on tip-toes Jessie stretched over the workbench, reaching up for the always frustratingly positioned shelf high up on the wall for a hand clamp to pin down the thick prototype bomb casing. One of these days she would quit being lazy and just move the table or reposition the damn shelf itself… but not before fixing the landing shower. Not that Tifa was complaining about it being broken anymore, she had stopped getting on her case about it coincidentally the same day that Cloud had moved in. Jessie suspected it being a free ticket into the man's room and an excuse to engage him in conversation had something to do with that.

As if on cue a familiar light knock tapped against the frame of the open workshop door. Twisting around mid-stretch the red-head engineer caught Cloud's eye and more intriguingly the subtle but noticeable way in which his gaze shifted down and then quickly back up with slight embarrassment.

Jessie grinned. Had she just caught him checking out her ass? She hoped so, it would be comforting knowing her new clothes were doing the trick at making herself more appealing. Slimmer fitting black Kevlar trousers that weren't obviously female but nor were they as blokish as her normal attire. She had bravely ventured into the realm of unisex.

Straightening up from her compromised positon she turned to face her frequent visitor, placed her hands on her hips and beamed.

"Well look what the cat dragged in."

"Hey Jessie" he replied, walking in and standing unsurely at the same chair and table in the middle of the room that she had drawn his blood upon almost two weeks ago.

She giggled at the way he always started tentative like this when he came to her for a favour, which on average was every other day. Not that she minded, after all she had been the one who had said she wanted them to get to know one another better and for him to feel like a welcomed member of AVALANCHE. Surprisingly he must have listened because since then he had indeed started hanging around at the bar more often.

"Come on Cloud. Like I said before you can come see me without looking like you're carrying an imaginary cap in your hand. Make yourself at home. Relax."

Nodding he pulled up a seat at the table loaded with rolled up maps while Jessie did a bit of clearing away on the other side of the workshop that was tidier than ever these days.

"You sure you don't mind about this?"

"Of course I'm sure, it's no problem. We're a team right? You can ask me for anything" the eighteen-year old replied stashing away the last reel of coloured wiring into its respective draw. "Besides, if it all kicks off on mission day I'll be depending on you to rescue me so it works in my favour to be in your good books."

Straightening the crimson headband sectioning of her fringe, she eagerly walked over to join him at the table with a wink.

"You'll be my hero right Cloud?"

Jessie sat down and like always her spine-tingled as her legs came into contact against the ex-SOLDIER's but she didn't care or try to avoid it, she liked it. She liked how at ease she had become around him. She liked that she was able to look him in the eye without turning into a nervous wreck. She liked that she felt confident enough to ask him silly little teasing questions like she had just asked and she liked how much they had started getting along together. Really she just liked him and she looked forward to these encounters. They were light-hearted, enjoyable, stimulating and fun. Cloud even had a bit of a dark sense of humour that could make her laugh when he got going. Of course he never laughed or smiled in return, that miracle was yet to be accomplished but he certainly didn't appear as dead in the eyes as when they first met so she making ground.

Or more likely Tifa was making ground.

"I think we should try to avoid a situation where anyone has to be a hero."

"Wow…" Jessie pouted jokily. "You sure know how to make a girl feel special. You were supposed to say yes."

"Yes."

"No no no. It's too late now, the moments gone."

"You're impossible" Cloud mumbled, reclining in his seat with arms folded and that smile that wasn't quite a smile on his face.

That expression always made Jessie light up, grin widely and her stomach tumble.

So she had a crush on Cloud Strife, it wasn't as if she didn't know it. Every time he walked through the workshop door her insides fluttered. His presence excited her, perked her day up, became an eagerly anticipated highlight of the day. She looked forward to it , thought about it, thought about him and just like before, not always were those thoughts clean. She wasn't stupid. It all made it glaringly obvious to the female video gamer that she had developed a fancy for the ex-SOLDIER but it was never going anywhere so she figured, why not have some fun with it? Perhaps that's where her confidence was coming from? Because she had resigned herself to the truth that she would never or could never compete against Tifa so it was not something she should even bother to take serious.

"So you want to know everything there is to know about the sector one reactor 'ey?" Jessie oozed with enthusiasm as she rolled open one of the many large classified maps across the table. "I gotta admit I was surprised when you asked me."

The handsome fair-skinned blonde coked his head questioningly.

"Why? I'd say I've asked you for stranger."

"Mmm, hacking those Shinra files for KIA firsts was a bit odd I'll admit. No I was just surprised that you came to Biggs and Wedges apartment alone to ask me about the mission is all. Being as you've not attended the last four AVALANCHE meetings I didn't think you really cared. Not that we discuss the reactor layouts in this kind of detail there either mind you."

"You don't?" Cloud looked up from the extensively mapped labyrinth of security systems, corridors, doors, pipes, walkways and ventilation shafts.

"Not really. Unless it's something that will interfere with the mission or shoot at us then the others don't really care about the rest of the technical stuff. Why do you care?"

Shuffling her seat a few inches closer Jessie chewed her lip as the sleeveless uniformed Nibel did that thing she found cute and adorable where he shrugged his shoulders mutely like he in fact didn't care.

"Ok ok forget I asked. Well then 'Spikey', if you REALLY want a full run down of the boring bits as well as all the exciting little delights we might face like a giant robotic scorpion that will laser beam your face off if you attack it when it's tail is up, then it's going to take a few hours. You still interested?"

Cloud nodded which Jessie accepted as an amusing green light to invite him into a piece of her world that the others all took for granted.

"Well don't say I didn't warn you."

* * *

**Chapter 3 Part 2- First touch**

"Cloud! You can't say that!" Jessie burst out laughing.

"… but I don't."

"Yeah well I don't really like kids either… besides Marlene of course, but I don't say it out loud! It's like saying you don't like puppies, you'll be branded a villain if you say things like that."

"Whatever" Cloud flippantly commented with intentional humour and sarcasm which furthered her amusement.

"There will only be a few toddlers there at best. Mostly it will all be adults."

"I don't like them either."

"Cloud! Are you trying to tell me something? Do you not like me either?"

Cloud eyed her neutrally but she could detect the playful slyness, "hm. You're ok."

"Just ok!" she clunked his shin under the table with the side of her boots and laughed. "Come on, it won't be that bad."

"Are you going?"

Though it was a hilarious question to ask, Jessie felt slightly pleased by it.

"Of course I'm going! Why do you think I agreed to hole up myself up in her with you? I'd only be stuck out there blowing balloons up all day otherwise."

They had yet again fallen down another tangent of conversation unrelated to Mako reactors and were discussing the get-together happening later today for Marlene's birthday that the bar was closing early to host. The two year old baby she had first met two and a half years ago was five now.

_Where had that time gone?_

"Hmmm" Cloud hummed unsurely.

"Blimey, who asked you to go? Because they sure didn't sell it. It'll be fun! Look if it makes you feel any better I'll hold your hand the entire time" she teased extending her hand across the table playfully.

"Tifa asked me to go."

_Well that made sense, it was hardly going to be Barret who had extended the invitation._

"Ahh so it's not the kids your scared of, you're scared about going on a date" she quipped.

The ex-SOLDIER remained silent and the comedy dropped.

"Oh…"

It seemed she had accidentally hit the nail on the head.

"Did uh… Teef say it was a date?" she shamelessly pried.

"No."

The fact she had to hide that she relieved at that point was a terrible thing.

"But you're worried about whether or not she sees this as one?"

Cloud struggling with a response told her all she needed to know and Jessie had her first glimpse of an answer on whether the ex-SOLDIER shared the same feelings that she could see clear as day in the martial artist. Jessie changed the subject, she didn't want to talk about this anymore and by the looks of it neither did Cloud.

"Well I guess I'll either see you there or I won't" she forced the light-hearted cheerful tone. "Anyway where was we?... code scanners… patrol markers… train station… oh yeah! SP turrets. Like I said, we're making sector 1 our first hit because it's the reactor that's closest to the railway network. Taking the train in we avoid four extra gates guarded predominantly by infantry and thirds but we face more SP gun turrets as a result. Nothing that big sword of yours shouldn't be able to handle."

Cloud was nodding along in understanding and rising from her seat Jessie walked around the table to observe and point to the map at an angle that wasn't upside down to her. As she crossed into his territory, her eyes remained fixed on the back of the swordsmen's soft looking blonde locks as she spoke.

"There's thirty-six of them in total, positioned in six circular clusters of six throughout the reactor."

Boldly she moved closer to stand a few inches off his left shoulder and leaned in.

"Here. Here. Here. Here…"

Her pointing to studiously memorized gun turret locations ceased, becoming distracted by the pleasant smell of the ex-SOLDIER and then the question of 'what the hell was she doing?' that she was close enough to smell him. It was the smell of leather, warm nylon, blade varnish and something else that was distinct and hard to put words to but at a push she would best describe it as 'guy'. The red-head tried to focus but she couldn't, not with that scent filling her head and the fact that she was close enough that if she leaned in just a few more inches or she was Tifa, her chest would be touching him. Her brain whirred with the prospect of testing physical contact.

"Jessie?"

"Sorry! Here. The other ones are here and here."

"And I'm guessing these are all wired up to the main security system?"

"Yep, so the moment we cut one SOLDIER are going to swarm the place entering from this bridge here, giving us about half an hour max to get in and get out."

Jessie had to reach further to point a finger to the bridge in mention, bringing her tantalizingly close to the side of Cloud's face and making it difficult to maintain a level voice. All she hoped was that his enhanced ears couldn't hear her heartbeat pounding like a drum.

"And this is the route we will be leaving in?"

"Uh-huh that's right and I uh… I'm setting the bomb timer for ten minutes which doesn't give us a whole lot of time to escape."

"Ten minutes?"

"Y-yeah. I'm setting it for ten so that…"

"So that it goes off before SOLDIER arrive."

"Err…"

"You could easily set it for fifteen and get an entire squadron caught in the blast while they are all centred in the reactor but you are avoiding that on purpose" Cloud concluded, his surprising powers of deduction snapping Jessie from the curve of the ex-SOLDIER's neck and the girlish episode she was having.

"I'm not a murderer Cloud. Even if some of them do deserve if after the things I've seen them do, I want to avoid hurting as many people as possible, even SOLDIER's."

"And the others agree with that?"

"Barret has a lot of anger right now. I know he won't feel the same so I'll just make up some technical mumbo-jumbo as to why it has to be ten minutes."

The seated ex-SOLDIER didn't speak for a while giving her a sense something was wrong.

"… Cloud?"

He turned to face her, making the already relatively close proximity between them even smaller and causing the female engineer to seize up. Gaia, would she ever get used to Mako eyes?

"Why are you helping me Jessie?"

_Because if you asked I'd let you fuck me on this table right now._

Jessie internally startled at the unbelievable crude thought that had come into her head.

"W-w-what do you mean?"

"This. The phone. The files. Speaking up for me in the basement. Why? I'm SOLDIER."

Staring like a fixated idiot into the attractive confused face and swirling troubled beacons of unnatural blue light at an intoxicatingly close range, Jessie dumbly concluded that she most definitely fancied Cloud Strife. Fancied him to a whole new level of attraction than she had ever experienced before. When she spoke it barely registered with her that was what she was doing.

"I guess I just don't see you that way Cloud. As a bad person I mean."

"Why? Why when I don't even know that myself? I don't remember anything about my time in SOLDIER or what I did. Tifa told me that I was there when Nibelheim burned. For all I know I could have been the one burning it to the ground and killing those villagers."

"I don't believe that. Not for a minute."

"But there's a chance I could have. I could have been that kind of person."

Jessie watched the way Cloud's lips moved, he had never spoke this much in one go and never this openly in any of their previous encounters. She was absorbed in his voice, feeling it's light vibration, wondering before expelling it from her brain what he would do if she crossed this tormenting distance and tried to kiss him.

"You only lost your memories Cloud, you didn't transform into a completely different person. If Nibelheim still existed today, is there anything you can think of that would make you even consider burning it to the ground?"

"… no."

"Then there's your answer. You're not a monster now so there's no reason to think you were a monster back then. Trust who you are now because that's all you've got to go on and who you are now is all that matters."

Cloud seemed to accept her words and bowed his head, it was only then that Jessie realized she had her hand placed on his shoulder, the coarse fabric of his nylon dark-navy sleeveless jumper gorgeously warm under her fingers.

"Ummm… Cloud?"

Jessie smoothly removed her hand from the blondes shoulder and turned to the third voice that had spoken from across the room to spot a curvaceous figure standing in the doorway.

"Is this a bad time? If you're still working I can come…"

"No it's alright Teef. I think we're pretty much done" Jessie smiled at the barmaid edging back out of the workshop. "What's up?"

"Oh ok. Well I'm doing a head count and you're the last person Cloud. Now it's no pressure! If you don't have an answer yet or you don't want to…"

"I'll come to Marlene's party tonight" Cloud announced, casually getting to his feet.

The brunette martial artist's expression brightened considerably like she genuinely had not been expecting that to be his response.

"You will? Cloud that's great!"

"I don't have a present though."

"That's ok, I'm heading into town in a bit. I could pick something up for you or… or you could come with me… if you like?"

Cloud sparred her a brief glance that Jessie didn't know how to respond to before taking the gorgeous woman up on her offer.

"Sure."

The radiant happy aura that began emanating of Tifa tore Jessie two ways. She was genuinely pleased for her older surrogate sister, she loved Tifa more than anyone else currently alive in her life today and she valued nothing more than her happiness. The downside was the guilt she now felt, for the thoughts and feelings she had been having for the same blonde first class who was the source of her joy.

"Jess, you wanna come with us babe?"

"No, no you guys go ahead. I've got some things I need to finish up around here."

Tilting her head slightly her best friend approached observingly with that motherly instinct she was inherently possessed with plastered across her face.

"Jess are you alright? You're looking a bit pale" Tifa asked, affectionately tucking back a section of her fringe with her hand into the crimson band encircling the tom-boys forehead.

"Teef… I'm a red-head who lives in a city beneath a giant plate that blocks out the sun. I think pale is pretty much a given" Jessie chuckled lightly which the barmaid mimicked.

"Ok. Well be sure not to spend all day cooped up in here" Tifa made her way back to the door. "You could help Wedge with the balloons, the poor guy looks like he's going to faint."

"Yes mum."

The leather-skirt and suspenders wearing buxom flipped around, placing a firm hand on her hip with an abashed expression.

"Hey! You know I don't like it when you call me that. I only care. Won't be long."

Tifa left and Cloud gave her an acknowledging nod before doing likewise, prompting her last minute about his PHS.

"Oh! Cloud!" Jessie hurriedly grabbed the device from the top drawer of the metal workbench and rushed outside into the fifty foot sandy brown yard separating the workshop from seventh heaven. "Here, I forgot to give you this."

Jessie ran up to the ex-SOLDIER who stared down at the phone she held to him at arm's length.

"It's reconfigured now so it can't be traced just like you wanted and your setup on the internal network I created for AVALANCHE so we can contact each other on a mission with a bit of added security. I also took the liberty of downloading the reactor layout blueprints in case you want to go over any of what we spoke about in your own time."

Cloud took the PHS but before he actually took it out of her hand he looked her in the eye.

"Thanks Jessie."

She shivered with delight, a pleasant sensation his gratitude always gave her that quickly polarised when he left and filed in beside Tifa down the side alley that lead round to the front of the bar. Seeing them together was always a wakeup call and she wanted to slap a hand to her face and groan.

_What the hell was she doing?_

* * *

**Chapter 3 Part 3- First touch**

"Drunk already? Really?" Jessie shook her head disapprovingly but with a tinge of amusement at the cheerful flamboyant mess singing loudly. "It's only 8 o'clock."

"AND I AM A MATERIAL GIR-Ayyyyyy! It's Jessie!" Biggs cheered, standing up energetically and nearly knocking his drink over along with drinks belonging to Charlie, Wedge, Wedge's cousin Alana, an also slightly drunk Reks from the weapons store and a girl called Leonora who lived two doors down and occasionally babysitted Marlene.

The bar was packed. The air humming with noisy chatter, laughter, cheesy music a certain newly turned five-year old would love and travelling through the lively establishment had become a bustling game of crowd surfing.

JESSIE! COME HERE! Come come come!"

"Minerva Biggs, sit down before you hurt yourself" Jessie chuckled as the raven haired action-hero wannabe started unstably clambering over peoples laps to get to her, much to everyone's amusement.

"No no no no. You gottsa gets drunk with me! Do you remember" stumbling over a practically in tears with hysterics Alana, Biggs came staggering into her wrapping both his arms sideways around her shoulders like a vice. "Do-you do-you do-you remember the firstest time we ever got drunk!? Do you remember it? Do you!?"

"Yes I remember" Jessie tried not to laugh as Biggs also fell into uncontrollable laughter. "I was still taller than you back then."

"Yeah yeah yeah. You-you-you were thirteen and you pee'd your pants a little bit when they caught us trying to un-wedge Wedge from that construction yard gate we broke into!"

"She did! I remember!" Wedge roared aloud with cake around his mouth.

"Yep. Thanks guys" Jessie blushed.

"That was the best night ever! And-and do you remember, do you remember that was when we made our pact and agreed to wear the… UHHHHH!"

The female engineer jumped as her hopeless best-friend shrieked rather girlishly in her ear, hopped away and pointed at her head like a class A drama queen.

"WHERE'S YOUR SACRED NINJA BAND OF FRIENDSHIP!?"

After fussing about her appearance for almost an hour Jessie had decided to try something new for the party and wasn't wearing the bandana. Her hair was still in its usual high ponytail buts her bangs had been straightened and styled by Tifa into a side sweeping fringe.

"You're supposed to wear it always so that we're friends forever and ever!" Biggs slurred to receive around of cute 'awwwws' from everyone, or almost everyone, at the table.

"HA! Gaayyyy" Rek's jeered to be thumped by Leonora.

"Awww so that's what the headbands are about, that's so sweet" Charlie clutched a half finished bottle of beer to her chest endearingly.

"Oh god, don't encourage him. Look you big idiot, I'm still wearing it."

Jessie pointed out the red strip tied around the top of her arm and rolled her eyes when Bigg's copied the female scrap-yard owners hand position and glints of moisture filled his eyes.

"Y-y-y-you are w-w-wearing it..."

Great. Now he was transitioning to the emotional stage. That just left the gay best friend stage, hyper stage, stunt man stage, wise philosopher stage, another two painful singing stages and the lord of the dance stage to go.

"… that's so… that's so… beautiful" Bigg's squeaked with emotion. "I SORRY I DOUBTED YOU!"

Jessie was once against snatched into the inebriated man's arms but this time with double the force so her feet were lifted clear from the floor and a face squashing kiss was planted square against her cheek.

"I OVE OOO 'ESSICA!"

"Biggs. Biggs! Put me down!" Jessie's strained with a crushed voice as the rest of the onlookers rolled. "Put me down now and I won't punch you in the eye for calling me Jessica!"

She was quickly let down and the man who stood half a foot taller patted her on the arm indicating to the crimson band while grinning.

"Yeah yeah I get it" she swatted his hand away. "Now do you know where Teef is?"

"I think she's with Marlene and Barret over by the bar" Wedge replied. "I think Cloud's there to."

"That's right darling! She's over there with Cloud" Biggs slung an arm around her shoulders and started making weird hand movements. "Who by the way, can I just say, is looking absolutely fabulous tonight. Tifa that is, not Cloud. Or did I mean Cloud? What did I say again?"

Wow. Gay best friend stage already. At this rate the lord of the dance would be making his grand appearance any minute soon.

"You're hopeless Biggs."

Making her retreat before she could be bombarded with fashion and hairstyling advice, Jessie slipped away to battle her way towards the bar. Weaving her way through bodies of people she surprisingly knew most of and coming across one familiar face in particular.

"Waddup girl!"

Jessie shook her head grinning.

"Oh god. Who let you in Johnny?," she bantered playfully.

"Are ya' surprised?"

"No, no I kinda knew you would slither your way in here."

The darker red-head male wearing a black motorcycle jacket flashed her a shark-like grin as they passed.

"What can I say? An excuse for a piss-up disguised as a kids birthday party, this is my kinda zone. I expect a dance later techy!"

"Eh, perhaps I'll grace you with my presence. As long as you keep it clean."

"Clean!? What kind of animal do you take me for? Of course I'll keep it clean… until the kids go to bed obviously. Then it's gloves off bump n grind time."

"And on that note, I'll be looking for Marlene now so I can stuff her with more cake so she never goes to bed."

"Hehe four more beers and you'll change your tune" Johnny confidently called, dancing backwards and dissolving into the crowd.

Continuing on to the bar where Tifa was nowhere in sight, Jessie scanned around and quickly caught sight of yellow spikes from the corner of her eye over by the food table. Feeling her stomach flutter she made her way over and walked in on a rather amusing scene of Barret standing sternly with his arms crossed behind a tiny birthday girl shyly fidgeting on her own two feet under an ex-SOLDIER's shadow.

She had to sympathize with Marlene, she wasn't the only one he had that effect on.

Cloud was holding a colourfully wrapped present and Jessie couldn't help but smile at how adorably at a loss on what to do he appeared with Tifa hanging on his other arm, clearly the one orchestrating this scenario. She noted the way the strikingly beautiful dark brunette dressed in a very sexy and classy black cocktail dress had her hand lightly linked around her childhood sweethearts forearm by his side. It was hard not to feel jealous. They certainly made a good-looking couple.

"Marlene, Cloud's got a present for you" the elegantly done-up barmaid urged softly trying to encourage the girl who had spent most of the evening on her father's shoulder to open up.

With his eyes narrowed the whole time, Barret reached out to take the gift from Cloud to receive a prompt slap on the hand from the martial artist.

"I don't remember your name being Marlene."

Giggling the five year old mustered the courage to look up from the floor and Cloud soon received a nudge from the side of Tifa's body. Taking the hint he stepped forward and Jessie had to battle to refrain from laughing as he stiffly handed the multi-coloured Faerie dragon print package down to the child with a great amount of gravitas as if her were handing her a weapon.

"Here" he said curtly.

With a tut Tifa took the visibly uncomfortable first's place and squatted in front of the five-year old keenly opening her present.

"Cloud picked it all by himself Marlene, he wanted you to look pretty in it for him."

Now Jessie couldn't hold back from laughing as the blonde's head snapped vigorously onto the back of Tifa and Marlene blushed a happy shade of pink as an adorable white fairy-tale princess dress littered in sequins revealed itself.

"I think we should go put it on now for him. What do you think?"

After swinging Tifa's hand by the fingers for a number of seconds, Marlene nodded and the pair set off for the stairs leaving Cloud scratching the back of his head uneasily. Not that she could blame him, if she didn't know that he was really a big softie at heart, Barret's ever hardening glare right now would have been terrifying even to her.

"So, picked it ya'self did ya'?" Barret rumbled stonily.

Cloud rolled his eyes.

"… what do you think?"

"I dunno. You tell me."

"Barret stop being mean. Take no notice of him Cloud. He's just playing with you" Jessie intervened, stepping in to help the poor guy.

"Pfff ta' hell I am."

As she made her appearance, the late teenager closely observed Cloud for his reaction to her appearance and felt a degree of victory when his eyes lingered on her hair.

"Chill out B, it's a party, come have a drink or something."

"Nuh-uh. Ain't no chillin' 'appening while Marlene's still about. An' tell that foo' Biggs if he don't keep his shit together 'till then imma can his ass."

"Don't worry, Leonora will be taking the kids at ten and honestly Biggs is harmless. He hasn't even reached the-"

_"YEAHHHHH! SHIT YEAH! TURN UP THE FUCKING MUSIC AND LET'S GO!"_

"That does it! It's ass-whoppin' time" Barret growled, storming the crowd towards the man stood on top of a table whirl-winding his arms.

"... hyper-stage. Gosh he really is hopeless" Jessie murmured, then considered the man she was now left alone with.

Quite how she had ended up alone with Cloud she weren't too sure but she wasn't about to ask questions.

"Uh… fancy getting a drink?"

The blonde Nibel looked at her sidelone and shrugged.

"I'm not sure alcohol works on SOLDIER's."

"Wow really? Mako stops you getting drunk?"

"I think so."

"Wanna find out for certain?" Jessie inclined her head towards bar mischievously and was pleasantly rewarded with that smile that wasn't a smile.

"Sure."

They shuffled their way into the crowd in single-file and whether it was the fact she already had three bottles of Dutch courage in her system or because it was too innocent an opportunity to take to avoid losing him, Jessie reached forward and took Cloud's hand in hers. He glanced back and Jessie couldn't resist a semi-flirtatious smile, feeling aroused and pleased that his hand was just as calloused and rough as her imagination had naughtily envisioned it to be. To her immense pleasure Cloud's hand faintly tightened around hers, so faint it may have only been in her head but he certainly wasn't letting go and that made Jessie's adrenaline peak with excitement.

Sure he was Tifa's but he wasn't entirely hers just yet and surely no harm could come from indulging in a little bit of meaningless fun? After all it was never going anywhere so…

… why not have some fun with it?


	4. First fumble

The evening had passed in a blur well on into the night and though the children had long left, by 3AM Marlene's birthday party was still in full swing with no signs of stopping. The music had got louder, heavier. The dancing more energetic, livelier, less restrained. People were laughing wildly, drinking, having fun. Making the most of a rare occasion to escape from the glum monotony of slum life.

Seventh heaven had become more club than bar, a darkened room filled with bassy dance music, the hum of chatter and hot excited drunk people who with each bottle Jessie was gradually joining the ranks of. She wasn't completely wasted just yet but based on the fact she was dancing without a care, it was safe to assume she was drunk enough that her usual inhibitions had gone to the wind. Moving to the continuous powerful rhythm in whatever way felt natural, a thin film of sweat lining her brow and cleavage, the eighteen year old red-head was drifting on an amazing high, partying hard and creasing up at the elaborate shapes being thrown in front of her.

"Are they always this embarrassing!?" Alana called, leaning in and elevating her voice to a shout to be heard above the music.

She was referring to the fully-fledged lord of the dance currently having his title challenged in a quirky dance off by a second equally as ridiculous drunkard.

"Biggs yes! Johnny most definitely yes!" Charlie yelled in reply, which was a good thing as Jessie's brain was far too preoccupied at that moment to answer.

"Wow! I can't tell if they're fighting, dancing or trying to mate with each other!"

During her distraction Jessie was vaguely aware of the two woman's laughter who seemed to have become her companions for the dancing portion of the night. She was distracted because she knew he was watching her again. How she knew and what made Jessie turn around to look across the room the way she did to confirm that was beyond her. Seeing bright baby blue eyes were indeed looking her way, she became giddy and even more light-headed.

It wasn't that strange for Cloud to be looking at her or to make eye contact, he barely knew more than five people in the entire room, one of which was her. Plus they had interacted a number of times throughout the night, admittedly not as much as she secretly would have liked, so another friendly interaction across the room was nothing out of the ordinary.

And yet this one seemed different.

With her on the dance floor and him standing against the far wall near a crowded corner where Barret had begun an arm-wrestling tournament, she caught Cloud's gaze through the hot perspiring throng. Jessie sent the blonde a smile before breaking the eye contact to continue dancing like it was no big deal despite her adrenaline saying otherwise.

Feeling Cloud's eyes on her body and the deep intoxicating music vibrating through her, the female engineer concentrated on giving his attention a reason to stay on her, accentuating the movement of her hips in a way sober Jessie would never think or dream of doing. Next she raised her arms overhead, lifting her hands up through her hair as she went causing the material of her light grey tank top to ride up, exposing the small of her back as she swayed. Then sliding her thick ponytail of crimson hair across one shoulder, Jessie flicked her stare over the opposite shoulder to check if Cloud was still watching, never letting her movements miss a beat.

They connected across the room again and seeing that the expression of the only man in this room she wanted to look at her right now had become more intense and observant, Jessie bit her lower lip with a small blush and continued. Others could have been watching she didn't care, they could have been talking to her and she would never have noticed. Everyone else in the room besides the muscled fair-skinned warrior had become a blur in the background, including those dancing and singing closest to her. Jessie's focus was set solely on the handsome blonde looking her way and on the little sensual movements she was making like no one else existed. Like they were in a private room together where she was dancing for him and only him, savouring in how sexy that thought and his attention was making her feel right now.

Jessie couldn't remember a time she was made to feel like this, so desirable, so aroused, but she didn't want it to end. A dizzy euphoria fuelled by alcohol, music, low-level lighting, more alchohol and the rising temperature of Jessie's already slightly sticky body for a man she was once again wrongly lusting over.

_Gaia this was frustrating!_

With her senses trapped in overdrive and knowing she was getting wet, the slum girl briefly considered going up to her room and finishing herself off just so she could clear her head.

"Jessie!?" Having her hand snatched the startled eighteen year old was snapped to and she whipped around to blink up at a breathless Johnny smirking her way.

"Huh?"

"I said nice moves girl. You've been holding out on us techy."

"Uh… thanks" she replied blankly, peering back over her shoulder towards Cloud and met with surprise and a hint of disappointment to see he was gone.

"I keep tellin' people, it's us red-heads baby, we got the moves. Now please tell this rhythmless tool that I dance better than him."

"You dance better than him" Jessie distractedly mumbled, more concerned with scanning over the crowded bar.

"Traitor!" came the indignant cry of Bigg's voice just as she caught a glimpse of Cloud as he moved out of sight behind the bar with Tifa, the gorgeously done up barmaid leading the ex-SOLDIER into the storage room out back by the hand.

"Ya' know Jess. Feel free to slap me here but I gotta say it. You look smokin' hot in that getup tonight."

"Uh yeah, yeah it's really hot in here" she blurted another response, not quite catching what Johnny had said. There was an odd sensation of panic inside her, an overwhelming and illogical feeling she needed to act that most likely would not have been there were she not half-drunk. "Umm... I'll be right back, I think we need more beers."

A chorus of jubilant cheers went up in response and with that Jessie hastily made for the bar.

* * *

**Chapter 4 Part 2- First fumble**

"-been great. I've missed you Cloud. Missed this."

"… me to."

Stopping at the edge of the door, the cold of the hallway that lead through to seventh heavens converted storage room chilling against her skin, Jessie peered down the corridor to see Cloud stood with his back against the white peeling walls staring questioningly down at Tifa. The dark brunette standing intimately close to the ex-SOLDIER was gazing down at her hands which were absently picking at the front of the man's sleeveless navy jumper.

Jessie swallowed her initial unpleasant reaction to that down.

"Tifa?"

"Sorry I… wanted us to talk alone for a bit. I can barely hear my own voice out there." Tifa exhaled and made herself look straight at Cloud rather than his clothing. "You know we used to talk on the phone together a lot when you were at SOLDIER."

"We did?"

"Mmhmm, you always sounded so nervous at first, it was sweet. Sometimes I could hear one of your funny SOLDIER friends in the background telling you to calm down. It used to make me feel really special" Tifa's smile brightened as if recalling the memory of those feelings. "I used to think about you all the time, pray you were fulfilling your dream, worry about how you were coping… I still do."

Jessie could tell from the uncharacteristically open way she was talking and leaning her body into Cloud that Tifa was only mildly drunker than she was. Any space between her and Cloud had all but gone and as she watched the long-legged woman who was somehow becoming even more stunning in her black cocktail dress as the evening went on, Jessie knew she should leave. It had been a huge admission for her often shy and reserved friend to make and she should not be watching this. Watching her open her heart.

_Watching the way she stood so close that Tifa's generous round breasts came into contact with her childhood sweethearts torso._

"I uh… don't really remember. Sorry" Cloud replied tensely.

"You don't have to keep apologising, honestly. I know your memories are in pieces right now… but that's what I wanted to talk to you about… about home… about everything that you can remember of that-"

"Tifa-"

"Hold on Cloud. Please. We've not spoken a word about it properly since you came back, I know we've both been avoiding talking about that night but I think we should. I don't want this silence hanging between us anymore."

Jessie mentally yelled at herself to leave, she definitely should not be listening to this, especially anything Nibelheim related but somehow she couldn't will herself to move.

"Is now really the best time for this?" Cloud mumbled, scratching the back of his head unsurely. "Shouldn't we talk in the morning?"

"No!" the brunette implored, her amazingly dainty hands for the damage they could dish out grabbing onto both of his. "No I can't. I won't have the courage for it then like I do now."

"But should we really be doing this here? Tifa we're standing in a storage room, you're getting cold, there are people still out there-"

"Well… then come to my room tonight, after everyone's left." A knot formed in Jessie's stomach. "I'll wait up for you."

The blonde swordsmen held Tifa's deep gazing rich chocolate stare for some time before replying.

"Ok."

The knot twisted tighter.

Tifa made a soft approving hum in the back of her throat and Jessie assumed they would leave at that point but the intense soul-staring continued until the tension in the air was so thick it could be cut with a knife. Appearing lost in the agreeing man's gaze for many long seconds, something meaningful wordlessly transpired between them and then if it was even possible the pair got closer to one another. Leaning her weight almost entirely upon him, completely lost in herself, Tifa's curvaceous hips met their counterpart and one creamy elegant leg slipped between Cloud's firmly rooted stance.

"Cloud I…" Tifa broke the electrifying silence then gave up, placing nervous trembling hands unsurely on wide shoulders instead. She looked terrified, entranced and glowingly happy all at the same time.

She looked in love.

Balanced on four inch black heels Tifa was only a few inches shorter than Cloud, placing her perfectly eye level with his lips which her eyes transitioned to as she drew closer towards them. When toned calves flexed and the advancing entranced martial artist lifted up onto tip toes to slowly elevate her own mouth, the knot in Jessie's stomach that was strained to breaking point finally snapped. Before the video gamer knew what she was doing she had left the safety of her hiding place and was marching down the corridor in heavy black boots, instantly attracting the attention of both fighters who rapidly pulled apart.

"J-Jess!? Babe what.. what are you?… I mean uh… is everything alright?" Tifa stammered, tucking a lock of hair back behind her ear with flushed cheeks, standing as far against the other wall away from Cloud as was humanly possible.

Jessie stood there for a moment not knowing what to say or what the hell she had just done that for.

"I came to get more beer!" she replied hurriedly in what had to be the lamest tone of voice imaginable.

"Oh r-right… of course. I think there's four more-"

"It's alright, I've got it."

Placing her hand up to the barmaid who made to retreat into the immaculately maintained room of crates, boxes, kegs and fully stocked shelves, Jessie rushed her way between the two in complete humility. Flabbergasted by her actions the eighteen year-old kept her eyes to the ground, grabbed the nearest twenty-four crate she could place her hands on and avoiding eye contact at all cost, especially with Cloud, went back the way she came.

"Um Jess, those aren't beers babe."

She blinked at the heavy plastic container in her hands.

"Did I say beers? I meant ciders" she lied quickly and kept moving.

Thankfully nothing else was said as Jessie made a bee-line straight for the door and pushed it open with her hip to escape back into the crowded bar. Nothing that is except for catching the backend of Tifa's gentle but not gentle enough whisper of...

"I guess I'll see you tonight then."

* * *

**Chapter 4 Part 3- First fumble**

_I guess I'll see you tonight then._

Forearms resting on the wooden railing in front of her, Jessie blearily squeezed the half-finished bottle of her eleventh beer between her hands tightly.

_Or was it her twelfth? Who cared they were going to fuck regardless, fuck each other's brains out while she stood on a dark empty porch alone getting drunk. Perfect._

Jessie raised the bottle to her lips and took another long swig, drinking deeply and stumbling back as her precarious balance faltered. She wasn't in the mood for partying anymore, getting trashed and fuzzily squinting out into the pitch-black run down streets of sector seven seemed far more appealing right now. Maybe if she drank enough it would erase everything she saw entirely?

She hoped so because seeing Tifa like that earlier had been a real eye-opener for Jessie that more feelings were invested between her best friend and Cloud than she had first anticipated. It was a wake-up call that meaningless or otherwise it was time she quit toying with this girlish crush of hers before someone's feelings got hurt.

 _But then again… they weren't officially an item yet, or even unofficially_ _for that matter so why should she back down?_

_Did it even matter what she did? It wasn't as if she stood even the remotest chance with him anyway._

_Although… he had been visiting her an awful lot lately and they got on great together. They had even loosely spoken about Nibelheim a couple of times, something he clearly hadn't felt he could do with Tifa. That had to mean something right?_

She sighed in annoyance at her own brain. What ever happened to the days where trolling around the Shinra computer network, refining Fenrir or converting mako powered generators over to fuel was all she thought about?

_"Shiva you're hopeless."_

Shaking her head Jessie straightened up, took another drink before unsteadily plonking the unpleasant final remainder of it down on the floor among the cluster of other almost empty bottles she had gone through. As she did so a loud clattering sound broke out and the red-head drunkenly reached out to balance the bottles on instinct, then frowned at them when she saw they were all still standing. It took a second crashing sound similar to bins being tipped over for the intoxicated woman to realise the noise was actually coming from off down the street.

It was probably Whole Eaters or if she was really unlucky, Hegs were known to venture into the town at night to scavenge.

With her woozy sights narrowed on the darkness Jessie plodded her way off the porch to have a look, wooden steps creaking under her boots as she went. Venturing a few seconds down the darkened road she moved away from the muffled waves of music that were pouring from the bar, scuffing the sandy floor playfully with her feet as she went.

"Well if it isn't Barret's girl."

Spotting her sooner than she spotted them Jessie barely had time to jump out of her skin before she had glanced up and noticed the group of five men that were approaching the bar. Three in front with two messing around way off at the back, laughing as they kicked over the bins outside the materia shop next door. Immediately recognising who they were Jessie's alarm bells rang and instinctively she backed away towards the bar again. These guys were always bad news.

"Woah woah, Jessie ain't it? I honestly don't know what ya' look so nervy for sweetheart, we're all friends here."

"What the hell are you doing here?" she aimed her demand at the skinny nasty looking man in front who was the only one of the group whose name she knew.

"You're having a party. We simply came to see where our invites got to. You know, as we're friends an' all" the raven-haired man with odd discoloured blue eyes announced as he flipped the short thick metal bar he was holding in his hand to make it clear he was armed.

His name was Dwain, a 'kind-of' drug dealer from sector five that Barret had the displeasure of knowing from the time AVALANCHE had looked into buying mako off the black market. Mako wasn't exactly something you could buy over the counter and though they never had to go through with the deal thanks to Cloud, the connections made from getting involved in such a lucrative business weren't so easily undone.

"Stop saying we're friends, we've got nothing to do with you" Jessie replied sternly, turning to the bar fleetingly to check how far she would have to run if she needed to.

"Wrong you little drunk bitch!" he snapped, becoming aggressive shockingly quickly as he advanced towards her. "That armless freak owes us money and we're getting paid!"

"What!? We didn't even take any mako from you! Barret doesn't owe you shit!"

Her own temper was rising now and standing her ground she squared back up against the vicious degenerate. It probably wasn't a good idea considering the condition she was in and the fact she only weighed 119 pounds last she checked.

"Wrong again! He made enquiries, you think enquiries about that kind of product comes free!? There's a price for our time and hospitality to consider, compensation for the risks we took talking to you and he's going to pay or else-"

"Or else what?" Jessie scoffed mockingly. "You going to go in there and make a scene? Barret will shoot you and you know it idiot, that's why you're still out here talking to me you dickless coward!"

"SHUT IT! Or else we start our own enquiries, starting with just how much that SOLDIER of yours is really worth." The eighteen year old mutely tensed. "Ahhh not got such a loud mouth anymore have ya'? That's right, we've heard the rumours. Either you give us what we want or we'll find out exactly how much of your bill Shinra will be willing to pay instead."

With the man's finger pointed in her face, Jessie reluctantly bit her tongue to stop from swearing at him again. This was serious, really serious and she needed to handle it preferably when she wasn't pissed and freakishly fearless.

"You're blackmailing us for money?" she grit angrily through her teeth.

"Oh no not money, we don't want money, which when you think about it is lucky for a group of poor little sector seven fucks like you. No you're going to pay us with blood, the firsts blood to be precise, two vials of it every month until I say so starting next week."

Jessie had to do a disbelieving double-take to see if Dwain was being serious and seeing that he was she begun laughing vigorously. Quite why she didn't know, it was far from being funny.

"What the fuck are you laughing at!?"

"You. If you think for one minute I'm letting you use him like some sort of permanent lab rat then I'm laughing at you."

A snarl of seething anger crossed the unshaven youngish man's face as the other four members of his group standing a couple feet away cracked up with their own chuckles of amusement.

"You think this is a joke do you!? You think you can humiliate me you little cunt!? Shinra will be down here faster than I could blow my load fucking you if you don't pay!"

"Then call them asshole!" Jessie exploded back, coming to the end of her patience with the disgusting man. "You're the one illegally trading the companies mako! You'll get in just as much trouble as us so be my guest!"

Fed up, angry and feeling very dizzy she made to storm away towards the bar. Now the thought of letting Barret shoot them didn't seem such a bad idea.

"Don't you turn your back on me whore!" the enraged man roared and suddenly Jessie's head was pulled back painfully by the roots of her hair, a stinging pain mercifully numbed by the booze yet still sharp enough to bring tears to her eyes.

The red-head yelped loudly, toppling backwards but managed to remain on her feet, her adrenaline skyrocketing as Dwain's hand kept a spiteful hold on the base of her ponytail.

"I'll show you just how much of an asshole I can be!"

"GET OFF ME!"

"Hey! The fucks going on over there!? Jessie!?"

The struggling woman's heart soared with relief to hear a voice she recognised yell in the distance.

"You stay outta it Johnny!"

"Dwain!? What the hell are you-!"

"I said get back inside! NOW!"

"Ta' hell I am! Get ya' damn hands off her!"

With Johnny's footsteps running over to her rescue distracting the thug latching onto her hair, the girl being dragged around hit the peak of her fury and balled her hand precisely the way Tifa had taught her. Pivoting on her feet with her arm pulled back Jessie swung a punch, twisting her body up through the half hunched over position Dwain had her in to connect her fist square into the gruesomely squashy pressure point of his nose. Upon knuckle-aching impact her attacker immediately fell away backwards, bellowing and clutching a bloody mess the eighteen year old was genuinely surprised she was able to create. Meanwhile a scuffle had ensued between Johnny and two men who had run over to restrain him. They were screaming at each other, so loudly and volatile Jessie could barely discern words and in her growing panic she made the foolish mistake of letting herself be distracted for a second to look over at the chaos.

"ARGHH MY FUCKIN' NOSE! YOU COW! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"

Next thing Jessie knew when she looked back, the metal rod of the unhinged bloody dealer was coming her way through the dark and brutally connected with the right side of her collar bone before she could move. The force of the agonizing solid strike felt like someone had punched a hole through her chest, stealing her breath and rattling her so badly she wasn't even sure how she ended up on the floor.

"JESS! DWAIN YOU PIECE OF SHIT! CORNEO'S GONNA HEAR ABOUT THIS!" Johnny threatened murderously with 'this' being accompanied by a loud smack and the sound of a body hitting the floor.

"CHRIST!, "What the-!?","Fuck it's the SOLDIER!"

_SOLDIER?_

Riddled with pain Jessie forced herself into an upright position with one arm and inhaled at what she saw as the remaining members of Dwain's gang made a run for it. It was Cloud, storming her way with his arm pointed outright towards the man he had just cleanly knocked unconscious without breaking a stride. His eyes were hard and charged with mako that set against the backdrop of night, glowed with such fierce pupiless luminosity they were terrifying to look at. It was a menacing side she had never seen of Cloud before and even his jagged blonde hair she usually found cute and playfully teased him about on occasion made him appear all the more ferocious as he entered through the darkness.

H-hey look, I'm warning you man! You better back the fuck up!"

Jessie's attacker standing over her backed away a couple of steps from the unarmed swordsmen bearing down on their location and when he didn't stop, Dwain pointed the metal pole at him threateningly. The moment he did Cloud grabbed the dealers arm and twisting it with as much effort as it would take a normal person to twist a door handle, a chilling snap took to the air.

"AHHHHHHHHH AHHH AHHH AHHHHHHHHHHH-"

Jessie shut her eyes and winced at the volume of Dwain's screaming which was the reason she gasped when unexpectedly she felt strong arms slide under her legs, around her back and she was lifted off the ground. Eyes slamming open the red-head gawked into the side of a man's neck no more than two inches in front of her nose and then travelling up caught a strikingly near close-up of Cloud's face. The rush that followed was indescribable, a sensation she didn't want to have that was so overwhelming it brought tears to the back of her eyes.

She was being carried by Cloud yet where he was taking her never came into her head and selfishlessly neither did thanking Johnny for helping her the way he did. She didn't even notice Dwain's yells of pain as they faded into the distance. All her attention was fixed on the first body tingling experience she had ever had as a woman of being held in a stupidly gorgeous guy's arms.

"You're ok now" Cloud assured her, noticing her frozen countenance from the corner of his vision and misinterpreting it for fear rather than the truth that she had never felt safer in her life.

His assurance and the way his arms discreetly tucked her closer to his chest had the same effect regardless. Jessie melted and set her head against the ex-SOLDIER's collarbone, the throbbing in her own injured collarbone completely overpowered by the throbbing in her chest.

* * *

**Chapter 4 Part 4- First fumble**

Numerous times as they came down the side alley, through the uncrowded backdoor and up the stairs of seventh heaven, Jessie considered telling him that she was more than capable of walking. Having one of Cloud's hands squeezed firmly in a high up position around the top of her hamstring however had made her mouth dry and she feared croaking embarrassingly if she attempted to speak. A dryness that only got worse when they hit the upstairs landing and her jumbled inebriated mind realised what room he was taking her to.

Jessie's fuzzy brain frenzied to think if she had left anything embarrassing lying around that he would be able to see. Well, they would soon find out.

Reaching out the arm hugged around her upper back Cloud opened her bedroom door and with the ability to see in the dark he crossed the room with ease. Jessie on the other hand couldn't see a thing until she was being placed gently down into soft bed covers, her back propped against the wall and the lamp she kept at her bedside was switched on to softly illuminate the room in a calm warm orange light.

The Cloud she recognised appeared again, standing half bent over at the side of her bed, her leg still burning in the palm of his hand that he hadn't let go yet. An unhurried exchange passed between them and as he lingered in that position touching her for longer than was necessary Jessie swallowed, the constant dizziness worsening to a point she felt she could be sick. Then Cloud finally withdrew but before she could stop herself the red-head leaned forward and reached out on reflex, grabbing onto his wide forearm with both hands before he could stand up. Pausing the blonde noted the contact and although his face remained neutral he nodded to her calmly and she bashfully let go. Cloud was always that way with his expressions; subtle, it was a part of what made him so captivating to be around.

She watched owlishly as the swordsmen straightened up, crossed the room and closed her bedroom door. Jessie's heartbeat that had been pounding for so long now quickened, convincing the woman sat twisting fingers and dirty boots through her bedcovers if it didn't slow down soon she was going to have a heart attack. The drumming only got worse when Cloud returned, took less than half an armslength seat away facing her causing the single bed to sink with a surprising amount of weight and raised a hand towards her collar-bone.

"May I?"

Jessie nodded dumbly and he continued, sliding the grey nylon strap of her vest along with his fingers, passed the strap of her white bra and dropping it off the end of her shoulder. It was an action so small but one that hit the eighteen year old like a tonne of bricks.

_Was this really happening?_

"What did those men want Jessie?"

She winced as the ex-SOLDIER's fingers inspecting her injury hit a sensitive spot of an inevitably enormous bruise but there was no way she was going to ask him to stop. There was something going on here, even if she was drunk she could feel it in his body language, in his actions, in how serious he looked.

"Noth…" she cleared her throat clogged with nerves. "Nothing. They were just looking for trouble."

They way Cloud flicked his stare up at her said he didn't believe that but Jessie couldn't form an answer right now. Her head was a complete scramble, her breathing tight, her emotions in turmoil, trying to figure out what this meant.

_Did he like her? Was it possible he shared even a fraction of the feelings she was having for him?_

"It isn't broken…"

_Were all the times he came to visit her at the workshop necessary? Were any of them just to see her?_

"… but it could be fractured."

_Like the visit last week for blade varnish that somehow turned into a 3 hour session of buster sword sharpening and kicking around the whacky idea of an all-purpose super-sword that could split into multiple smaller swords._

"We should use cure materia on it to be safe."

_And now to find out she was the first he had talked about Nibelheim to over Tifa, what was that about? What about the dreams Cloud had been having or the thoughts he felt didn't belong to him, had he not talked to her about those either?_

"Are you hurt anywhere else?"

_And what about earlier, the way he was looking at her across bar? Was that all in her imagination?_

"I don't think so."

_She had to know. This was driving her mad, he was driving her mad. Gaia she had to know or her chest was going to explode._

_"_ Well you should probably-"

"Cloud" she interrupted, her voice coming out strained through tight overwhelmed breath. "What do you think of me?"

Caught off guard the hand that had been resting lightly on her bared shoulder withdrew but his eyes didn't run, perched on the edge of her single bed he held her gaze knowing precisely what she was asking. She knew he wouldn't answer it though, not straight away or honestly at least.

"...?"

"Why am I the only person you've spoken to about Nibelheim?"

When Cloud tensed Jessie realized she had accidentally dropped the ball that she had been spying on him and Tifa earlier but she didn't stop, she was too far down this tunnel now to stop.

"I think you're… easy to talk to."

Jessie was elated to hear that but it wasn't enough and never breaking eye contact she shifted around the ex-SOLDIER, getting off the bed and standing directly in front of him. She didn't know why she was doing it, it was that thing about being on fuzzy auto-pilot and losing the will to constantly battle these desires kicking in again.

"What else?" Jessie spurred softly.

Taking a step forward and reaching out both arms, she daringly placed her hands on broad shoulders and shivered, knowing now why Tifa was toying with the pleasantly warm to touch dark navy knitwear. She was nervous, more nervous than she had ever been in her life yet she felt a strange degree of confidence. Confidence to push forward with this new intimacy she was testing.

"Cloud. Do you see me as more than a friend?"

The long silence that followed and the way the blondes control over his usual neutral composure slipped spoke volumes, escalating the conviction she had that she wasn't making all of this up. If it wasn't so difficult to tell in the mellow tangerine light she would even say he was blushing. Her heart galloped.

"Jessie I... yes I see you as a friend."

Hearing the way Cloud evaded her question was all the confirmation she needed for what deep down she already knew. Swallowing hard, stomach riddled with butterflies she placed one foot at the heel of her boot and using the ex-SOLDIER never once taking his eyes of hers as balance, slid off her boots, one and then the other. Next she stepped away and did the unthinkable, crossing her arms she took a hold of the base of her tank top, took a deep breath and lifted it, discarding the grey article to the floor as her hair fell across one shoulder. Seeing Cloud's reaction, his upright posture becoming more rigid, his adam's apple flexing, his legs stiffening, his respectful eyes trying but failing to keep off of her body and the modest amount of extra cleavage she had on display, it heightened her own libido like crazy. With courage to go on it was three small buttons and a zipper later and the red-head was standing in nothing but a white bra, regrettably mismatching violet panties and the red bandana still tied at the top of her arm.

"... and what about now?" she whispered with bated breath, raising her hands resting in front of pale thighs up and folding them in front of her abdomen.

Her entire body was tingling with excitement, embarrassment and disbelief that she was doing this. She was usually so self-conscious about the body she kept hidden under baggy clothing but now she felt more womanly than she ever felt in her life.

"I…" Cloud licked his lips anxiously, appearing speechless.

It was adorably enticing and confidence growing moving Jessie stepped boldly into the empty space between his legs, the pressure between hers mounting rapidly.

"What? Tell me" she coaxed, taking the first class' hand resting tensely on his knee and directing it onto the curve of her hip letting him feel her.

The eighteen year old exhaled at the pleasurably coarse brushing sensation in one slow shuddering breath, her senses stuck in a weird intense blend of being both numbed and enhanced by the lingering alcohol coursing through her veins. She knew why Cloud was struggling, she could see the internal battle he was fighting and guiding her free hand around his neck and into the back of his luscious rugged hair she worked to tip the balance. When a second hot palm firmly engulfed her other hip by itself, edging her closer to the trembling swordsman, her breath hitched.

"Jessie… I can't…" he heaved with great effort, bowing his head towards the woman he was holding so close the tips of his hair tickled her stomach.

_But you want to._

"I know" Jessie cooed tenderly, stroking his hair and guiding him closer so his forehead rested against her stomach. "I know you. I know you're heads not in the right place for anything serious…"

The fingers placed tantalizingly close to the band of her underwear clenched, lightly squeezing Jessie's smouldering hips.

Now she couldn't hold back anymore.

"But I don't care!" she declared, pushing him back and collapsing her charged body against his, driving them both into the covers of her bed. "Fuck I don't care!"

Her chest mounted upon the blondes, her legs landed in a straddling position across the top of one of his and instantly she felt it when the back of his hand that had got awkwardly trapped there pressed against her womanhood. Worked into such a state of arousal the rush of serotonin was profound, spiking the engineers super sensitive nerves.

"You don't have to be serious with me" Jessie hissed, involuntarily shifting her pelvis sparking more volts of pleasure between her legs. "You don't have to act around me. I can be whatever you want me to be."

"Why are you doing this?" Cloud's pent up whisper sounded almost like an angry growl, his hot mouth positioned at the entrance of hers blowing sensually against her lips.

"You know why. I can't…" her voice cut out into a high pitched whimper, Jessie's gyrating hips instinctively searching for the most pleasurable position finding one of his fingers and making it slide into the folds of soft flesh under her panties to reach her clit. "Ahhh… mmm Cloud I can't stop… I can't stop thinking about you. You're driving me mad!"

"Jessie… you've been drinking."

"Then tell me to stop. Tell me you want me to stop and I will."

Possessed with lust Jessie's erratic lungs raggedly inhaled on the air escaping the mouth she desperately wanted to kiss but was holding back from doing in fear it would be too committing an action and drive him away. It was a backwards logic from the girls lust drunk, drink drunk, maybe even love drunk mind considering she was basically fucking his hand.

"Tell me you weren't fantasizing about me when I caught you watching me earlier."

Feeling Cloud's hand move a spasm rippled through her lower body, the constant rubbing of his finger against her violent panties now slick with excitement reaching that perfect level of frictionless gliding.

"Tell me that seeing reactor layouts was the real reason you came to me yesterday-ahhh… and your phone the day before that."

"… I can't" Cloud rumbled, his words that were music to her ears intensifying the physical stimulation she was getting.

"Why?" she groaned.

"You know why."

Suddenly a dramatic shift occurred and the swordsman's hand snapped around taking a rougher, stronger control over the movements against her flower. It took the semi-naked red-head by such surprise her fingers seized the front of his jumper, holding on tightly and burying her face into his shoulder as he switched to a faster two-fingered circular motion.

"Clouuuuuuuud!" she drew out long and hard, her open mouth wetting and tasting the man's sweet smelling neck.

"Hmmm?"

"Tell me I'm your girl... I don't have to be the only one or even your favourite but tell me I'm one of them. Tell me you see me that way, I need to hear it."

"You're my girl Jessica."

His words, the shockingly perfect use of her full name, his messaging hand, it was all a sensory overload on the virgins system and Jessie completely lost control.

"Move them! Gaia move!… move!" the barely coherent tomboy begged.

Somehow Cloud knew what she meant and her panties were pulled to one side. The feeling of skin to skin contact of his hand against her pussy that followed sent shockwaves into the red-heads core leaving her moaning into the side of his hair. Jessie barely lasted a couple minutes after that before a familiar aggressive pressure had built up inside her, the kind that brought tears to the corner of a person's eyes and it was then in a moment of alarm she realised she was already going to orgasm.

Embarrassed by the speed of her climaxing she used all her strength to push herself up and look him pleadingly in the eyes.

"Cloud! Wait! I'm! I'm I'm I'm!" she mewled.

"Then tell me stop."

His clever retort, his ministrations speeding up on her heat and Cloud's free hand hooking into her underwear to take a full-handed grab of her ass threw away her reservations. No longer resisting she opened her legs wider and began bouncing in rhythmic harmony with the motion being set by his much larger fingers. Face flushed, body stickily damp Jessie had long reached the point she would normally orgasm yet the escalating pressure frighteningly continued.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!"

Now desperate to hit her point of release Jessie bounced harder. Loose crimson ponytail swishing ticklishly up and down her back. Hardened nipples grinding sensitively against the cup of her bra. Her squashed torso tiny in comparison to his massaging against every inch of the solid mass of muscle shifting beneath her.

_Why wasn't she orgasming yet!?_

Pale brown eyes streaming, her knuckles turned white from gripping Clouds clothing so hard as she hit a never before reached peak of the roller coaster, waiting terrified for the long overdue drop.

_If she didn't orgasm soon she was going to…!_

Finally she broke, a full body detonation and shoving her face into Cloud's extremely creased jumper Jessie practically screamed into swordsmen's well defined chest. Legs slamming together an entire nights worth of drama, anticipation and pent up frustration ignited her pleasure receptors in a way she had never imagined her body capable of. Strong secure arms wrapped around the shoulders of the young woman hanging on for dear life, seeing her through the best physical experience of her life and then through the trembling convulsions that followed. Even when he eased up a good minute or two later Jessie could swear she was still orgasming. Were they aftershocks? Multiple smaller orgasms? This was her first real experience with a man and pleasure this intense that she had no idea.

When they stopped it left Jessie laying her face against the ex-SOLDIER's chest gasping for air, blurry orange stars flickering in her vision, completely exhausted. Her body contently hugged to his was shuddering, her brain still unable to fully believe any of this was real. It certainly felt real, the fingers lightly tracing across her bare back felt real, as did the feint frantic drumming she could feel against her cheek. It was then Jessie realised Cloud's heartbeat was madly racing and hers was not the only breathless heavy breathing being amplified by the silence of the room. Much to her delight and disorientation she could also see from the arousing shape positioned next to her leg entwined with his that he was hard.

Jessie bashfully ogled the sight. She should return the favour... no, she wanted to return the favour she just had no experience of how to do it. She reached out tentatively but her hand was intercepted midway and held onto by the swordsmen.

"Shhh, rest now" he urged, the low rumbling vibration in his chest reverberating hypnotically through her body.

"Is this about me drinking?"

"... it's been a long day."

Jessie laid there both warmed by the man's honourable gesture and thinking of a way to tell me he didn't need to feel he would be taking advantage of her.

"Cloud. I meant everything I said."

"I know. I'm driving you mad always showing up asking for favours."

"You know I didn't mean it that way" she giggled tiredly at his light sarcasm, shoving his torso under her.

"Sleep, tell me again in the morning."

With how warm and cosy she felt right now it was too hard for the satisfied red-head not to do just that.


	5. First kiss

**Chapter 5 Part 1- First kiss**

Delicate, that was the best way to describe Jessie's state as she descended the staircase, hands gripped heavily to the bannister for support. Her collar-bone still bloody hurt, a gently swaying brain was causing her motion sickness and her eyes itched sore from a meagre few hours of sleep. It wasn't the worst hangover she'd ever experienced but bad enough to leave an ominous queasy feeling in her stomach like she may just hurl if she wasn't careful.

Unlike her body however, Jessie's memory of last night was in perfect condition and waking up in nothing but her smalls, a lingering ghost sensation of a man's hands between her legs, it had been no surprise to find Cloud missing from her bed. She hadn't honestly expected anything different.

Reflecting on her erotic episode with the ex-SOLDIER was beating her head up just as much as the alcohol was. On the one hand she wanted to feel regret for the exchange and the more she fussed over the possible implications last night could have, how awkward it might now be or how wrong it was on Tifa, the more Jessie did regret it.

But then she would think about the actual night, recall the words, the moment, how good being with him felt, the way being touched and held had felt and Jessie would swing back to not regretting it at all.

The constant battling indecision of how to take last night had left her staring up at her bedroom ceiling neutrally for over half an hour. In that time neither side had won so she got changed and now here she was, hobbling weakly down the staircase both hoping and dreading that an answer would be waiting for her at the bottom.

_"Ifrit's fiery ballsack Teef! It smells like ass, actual ass!"_

_"I don't know what that smells like but I agree with Biggs, it's not pleasant. S-sorry."_

_"It isn't supposed to be pleasant. That's the point."_

_"Errr it moved! It just moved!"_

_"Stop being ridiculous and just drink it._ Barret said we all need to be straight within the hour."

Walking in on Tifa's voice, Jessie made eye contact with the less-than-chipper looking brunette leaning on elbows behind the bar. Then to Biggs and Wedge sitting limply on bar stools, both looking like death warmed up and gazing grimly down at five glasses of thick black sludge on the counter.

Then because he was perched separately at the end of the bombshell of a bar she spotted Cloud last, appearing his usual self which ironically in this instance was the cheeriest in the room for once. The red-head and the blonde made intense yet surprisingly welcome eye contact and it was unexpected just how easy Jessie found it was to smile despite the colony of butterflies trying to escape through her stomach and mouth. That was her initial reaction anyway, after that she had to break her gaze away as her cheeks swiftly began to heat up under mako eyes.

"Morning babe. Feeling rough?" The tomboy bravely shuffled onto a vacant stool half way between Wedge and Cloud that had a dishearteningly placed glass of foul black muck in front of it that the greeting barmaid had prepared for her.

"If I say I feel fine do I get out of drinking this?"

A grin and a light dishcloth to the head was Jessie's answer.

"Don't you start as well."

'This' was Tifa's homemade hangover cure, how or what she made the vile concoction from no one knew or wanted to know. One thing was certain however, no matter how heavy your hangover it would be gone within the hour, regardless of whether or not you kept it down.

A particularly haggard looking Biggs slumped his head to the bar to gaze into the potent cocktail.

"Geeeez… You and that cauldron of yours have really outdone ya'selves this time Tiffy. It's so gross its almost beautiful. Don'tcha think Cloud?"

The fair skinned swordsmen who Jessie was desperately trying but failing to stop glancing at shrugged casually.

"If it works."

"Heh, if it works he says. Easy to say when you ain't the one who's gotta neck it."

"Ok ok, I admit I may have overdone it a bit on the concentration, but Barret sounded urgent on the phone so can we just do this."

"Did he say what it was about?" Jessie followed up and Tifa simply shook her head.

"He said it wasn't something safe to discuss over the phone, that's it."

Bigg's made a scoffing noise and fished into his baggy cargo trousers, inevitably to roll a cigarette."Pfft sod that, I'll kick this hangover the good old fashioned way. I ain't drinking fermented scrotum juice without a valid reason upfront."

"… I slept under a pinball machine" Wedge randomly croaked pitifully.

Without warning the door to seventh heaven was thrown open with a bang, daylight bursting brutally into the dimly lit bar.

"URRGHH!"

"Turn it off!"

"Hssssss"

"BE GENTLE WITH ME!"

"Round it up ladies! It's fireworks time!" A familiar booming voice and ungracious footsteps stomped in through the glaring rays. "Todays the days we stick it to tha' man! An' course by man I mean that fat piece'a vermin shit scum no good greedy son-of-a-bitch Shinra!"

"B! Indoor voice… I beg you" Biggs whimpered at the charged AVALANCHE leader entering the building noisily.

Catching onto his words Jessie quickly found her way to her feet.

"B? What's going on?"

"Revolution! Tha's what's goin' on!" Noticing their fragile demeanours and the drinks on the counter, the frantic and slightly perspiring corel gunman paused in his outburst, towering above them. "…? The hell ya'll still hanging out ya' asses for?"

"Couldn't gain the courage to drink poison" Biggs painfully explained, suffering under the heavy bass voice with hands clamped to his ears.

Barret wrinkled his heavy brow in response, swiped a glass off the counter, downed it in one without hesitation and slammed the empty cup down un-phased.

"Tsk quit messin' around foo's! We got work to do."

Jessie swapped dumbfounded expressions with Wedge. She was aware Barret had come from a coal mining village but she didn't know they actually ate the coal there as well.

"Can you tell us what this is about already" Tifa implored and Barret crossed his arms with an eager almost excited expression.

"Need me to spell it out? We hittin' the reactor. Tonight!"

"WHAT!?"

"Yeah good one."

"S-serious?"

Tifa, Biggs and Wedge exclaimed together.

Jessie wordlessly inhaled and noticed Cloud straighten in his seat.

"Serious as a demi 2 to the dick. While you petals were sleeping in this mornin', I been over in sector 4 with Elfe's lot followin' up a lead that's gonna be our free ticket to blowin' that hunka junk reactor." Barret confidently placed his gun-arm onto the counter with a thud. "Word is Shinra's been spooked by some new cat showin' up in the city an' choppin' people up with some big ol' sword. Got 'em real scared, makes sense SOLDIER gotta shift some serious manpower about for that. Just so happens we gotta lead tha' sector 1 will be lighter for a couple hours this evenin'. Lighter by near on half."

For a time nobody said anything, each stunned member of AVALANCHE looking to gauge one another's reactions to this game changing news.

A chance to hit the reactor with half the resistance? It did sound too good an opportunity to pass up.

"… I don't know." Tifa was the first to break the silence. "I don't know about this at all."

"Dunno? Whach'a mean ya' dunno? Didn't ya hear me woman, HALF-"

"- yes I heard you. But were hung over, tired, not fully prepared. This all just seems too rushed to me, I don't like it."

Barret's stare was fixed to the barmaid as if she had sprouted a second head and Tifa's big round redish-brown eyes held his stare right back.

Jessie recognised in an instant where this was going with the two strongest-minded members of their group and instinctively backed her chair away towards the end of the bar.

"Uh-oh… here we go."

A soft chuckle, or at least what she thought was a soft chuckle to her right, made the female engineer's head pivot quickly towards Cloud at her side.

"Don't like it! Tha' hells there not to like!?"

"I told you, we're not prepared!"

"Not had our thumbs up our asses long enough more like. We ready! We got the codes. What we need for the plan to work is tight, everything else we can smooth out on the train. Jessie." The engineer tensed in her seat. "Bombs good to go right?"

_The casing is still a prototype and the encrypted lockdown pad isn't implanted yet but…_

"Uh sure… yeah, I guess I could make it work."

"See, we good to go. This is 'appening Tifa."

"I still don't like it" the dark brunette martial artist countered to the gunman, both leaning aggressively across the counter at each other now.

"Well It's a good thing I'm tha' leader of this group an' it's my call to make then ain't it?"

"You may be our leader but that doesn't mean you get to risk our lives foolishly!"

"Lives!" Barret smacked his gun-arm against the counter. "Minerva's name's 'append to you Tifa? You used to be tough! When did riskin' our lives ever start being a problem!?"

"When I don't know what I'm risking it on! This lead from Elfe', what do we really know about it? What if it's wrong?"

"Personally I think you both make valid points" an incredibly tiny Biggs attempted from his stool but was soon shouted over.

"What if! YOU'RE asking what if! PAH! Don't recall ya' asking many what ifs when this guy showed up!"

Barret's real hand pointed its way snappily at Cloud.

"So we're back to this again are we!?" Tifa threw her hands up in exasperation.

"Nah, we ain't. I already said my piece about that whacko."

"Don't call him that!"

"Tifa…" Jessie and the rest of AVALANCHE turned, none of them expecting to hear the usually silent Cloud speak. "He's right, we should move on this. We should go for the reactor today."

"But-" the shocked curvaceous fighter attempted.

"It's alright. Even if the leads wrong, I'll handle it " Cloud stated very matter-of-factly, scraping his stall back and getting to his feet.

"Cloud…" Tifa mumbled weightily and perhaps the only person to notice the silent but meaningful exchange between the childhood couple was Jessie.

"Aw'right then, now we're talking some sense" Barret nodded, both surprised and impressed. That was until the swordsman continued to head for the door behind the bar unannounced. "But don't be getting' too full'a ya'self hotshot! Remember, I'm payin' ya' so your spiky ass is workin' for me!"

"… whatever."

* * *

**Chapter 5 Part 2- First kiss**

Full-on climaxing foreplay with a first class SOLDIER by night, blowing mako reactors sky-high by day. Jessie's usually simple world was becoming insane.

It had been her intention to speak with Cloud at some point today about last night but now as they were about to head-out on the mission soon, time had run out. The whole affair with hitting the reactor today was sudden and messy enough as it was, she couldn't afford to go out on the biggest job of her life with things as they were with one of her teammates as well. She needed to clear the air with Cloud.

The eighteen year-old took a deep breath, adjusted her crimson headband, straightened her light silver plated chest armor and tapped twice on the no longer spare room.

"Cloud, you got a minute?"

_"Come in."_

Jessie entered, minutely grinning at the recollection of the last time she had walked through this door.

Was it messed up that she briefly felt a tad disappointed that Cloud was stood fully clothed in the middle of the room instead of half-naked like before? Either way she had gotten pretty good at hiding her thoughts from her face around him and calmly leaned against the door-frame, eyeing the insanely hefty buster sword laying on the ground with a few orbs of materia laid out around it.

"Bolt, All and Cure?"

"That's the plan."

"Mmm. I'd ask if your nervous about the mission but I think I already know what your answer will be."

_That's good, start casual, remind him that you're still friends, keep your eyes on the wall behind him and for gaia's sake don't start blushing._

"Are you nervous then?" Cloud returned just as at ease as she was pretending to be.

"Petrified. So much so I feel sick thinking about it" Jessie answered honestly.

"You sure that's not just Tifa's hangover drink?"

"Please don't remind me." She shuddered, the foul memory still lining the back of her throat. "So that was quite the bold statement you made in the bar earlier. Really think you can handle it if Barret's lead on security is wrong?"

Cloud shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

"Probably."

"Always playing it so cool and confident. That's what I like about you" Jessie chuckled, then softly alarmed at how that could be received and quit leaning to push the door shut behind her. It was time. "Cloud, look about last night-"

"-you don't have to-"

"No please, I want to. I know I was the one who instigated everything that happened between us ok. I know I was the one who came on strong… strong being an understatement here … and I take full blame over what happened for forcing myself on you. I'm not sure what came over me and I can't justify it any way other than to say it was a crazy evening, I'd been drinking and… no, I'm not making excuses. What I'm trying to say is, I'm sorry if I made you do anything you were uncomfortable with and I hope we can continue being friends."

Cloud wordlessly folded his arms, his expression hardening and Jessie's dwindling confidence in this conversation shattered.

"Do you regret it?"

The question came as a great surprise to the young woman stood face to face in the middle of the room with the ex-SOLDIER and thus began her awkward struggle to form an answer to a question she had been battling with all morning.

"I… well… it's not so much that I regret it… I mean I do! But only because you and Tifa have a thing together… although it's not my place to say that! It's just I saw you looking at me in the bar and I read into it too much because that's just how my stupid head works at times. Then you saved me from those men and that was kinda romantic though I know you probably didn't mean for it to be and was just helping. Which I'm super grateful for by the way!" Jessie was a quick talking blabbering wreck of nervous words by this point. "But t-then you came to my room as well you see and I'm not really equipped to deal with cute guys in my room, especially when I'm drunk. Not that I'm saying you're cute to make a move or anything because we're friends. I'm simply trying to make the point that I don't regret it because I do feel comfortable with you and you are good looking so if I had to make a fool of myself with anyone then I'm glad it was you. "

The longer she spoke the faster her contradictory yammering got, as did the speed of her flustered foot shuffling against the carpeted floor.

"And I'm definitely not saying I regret you touching me or anything or that I didn't enjoy it because there was nothing wrong there. I got an itch… and you scratched it well… really well actually…" Her voice croaked out at last, the shock red-heads pale brown eyes widening at that last bit. "Can you help me out here please? I'm struggling."

"No. It's much more fun this way."

Jessie's stare left her heavy black boots to see that infamous smile that wasn't quite a smile and carefree amusement in vibrant mako blue eyes. It was all that was needed to instantly pull her from the quicksand she had jumped herself into.

"Are... you enjoying this?"

"Little bit" he quipped with obvious jesting humour.

"You git! I was nearly having a mental breakdown over here!" Jessie crowed, finding she couldn't help but smile ear-to-ear.

"Like the time you took my blood. I never told you but I thought that was funny too."

The tomboys mouth fell open slightly and then with hands on her hips, directed her eyes towards the teasing man's sword on the floor.

"You know I'd hit you with that thing right now if I could pick it up."

"Give it a shot if you like" Cloud challenged with a rare edge of sass in his voice that made Jessie laugh.

"I don't think pulling my back out half an hour before leaving to destroy a 600,000,000 gil reactor would be a good idea. But any other time Strife and you know I would!"

"You're right, pulling your back would be a bad idea. I'd have to help and you would probably think I was being romantic."

The slight eighteen year old looking up at the blonde with a permanently fixed smile on her face, bit her lip to try and hide she was grinning at the very cheeky taunt.

"Sometimes I wish the others knew just how mean your sense of humour can be at times."

"But you feel better" he returned and to her realisation, he was correct.

"You're right. I do." Jessie took a short step forward to place her hand gratefully on the blonde's forearm. "Thanks Cloud. So we're still friends yeah?"

"If that's what you want."

For a second she didn't know how to interpret that response but quickly decided not to make the same old mistake of reading too much into things.

"Of course that's what I want. My job, work load and life in general would be a lot easier without you around Spike" she jested, hopping onto tip-toes to cruelly ruffle his irresistible-to-tease hair with her hand. "Speaking of which I gotta bounce, I need to give Wedge a hand with our new ID's before we set off."

"Sure. And try to avoid finding trouble until we reach the reactor this time" he retorted after swatting her hand away.

Feeling they were back to being in a good place again to have a bit of banter before she left, the red-head entered the ex-SOLDIER's personal space, placed the same hand to his chest and slanted her face up at him as sweetly as possible.

"l'll try. And Cloud, thanks again for last night. It was fun, we should do it again sometime."

"… huh?"

Seeing the man's face pale and go adorably blank, Jessie collapsed into laughter.

"Oh Cloud! I'm joking! You know you're not the only one who can make a mean joke" she sang, giggling all the way over to the door. "You should have seen your face!"

"Clear off" the blonde defended his pride, playfully casting a green materia sized orb at her.

The tech-whizz caught it from the open doorway with ease and immediately realised why he had discarded it.

"Owch. Pay much?"

"200 gil."

With great effort she held back another more explosive snort of laughter and as she left, pocketed the very convincing fake she would take back to Floki's materia store for a refund on tomorrow.

"At least one things sure about your past, you haven't spent much of it in the slums mountain boy."

* * *

**Chapter 5 Part 3- First kiss**

Bullets pounded the air, metal slashed in sharp screams against metal, the platform beneath her feet trembled and Jessie's inner gadget nerd had never been so exhilarated in all her life. It was beautiful, the most beautiful thing she had ever seen and as her body burned with adrenaline at the sight of it, she wanted to squeal like an excited child at Christmas.

The way its sleek red armoured frame thundered around in smooth flawless movements was sheer perfection in engineering and hydraulics. The way it reacted and evolved its battle strategy to her teammates attacks, a testament to the advancements in modern programming. Scorpion guard was more breath taking for a computer geek like her to behold than even she could ever have imagined and left Jessie with no doubt this was the work of the great Reeve Tuetsi. A true genius to be respected and idolized in the field of animatronics.

She needed to get a clearer view of it.

Flipping up the zoom and video recording lens of her tech-goggles, Jessie climbed over the rail of the platform she was stationed to keep watch from. A ventilation beam comprised of 5 thick metal bars stretched ahead of her and with careful steps she balanced herself a way out. Hot pungent waves of sharp chemical odour blew up against her skin, tempting her to gaze down into the lime green pits of mako lurking hundreds of feet below her, but she resisted.

Finally when her trembling legs had gone as far as they dared the tomboy dropped to her haunches and watched in both awe and despair from afar at Cloud and Barret battling furiously together to dismantle the marvellous machine.

The ex-SOLDIER swarmed the mechanical wonder with heavy slashes, his enhanced speed and strength hacking for openings in its resilient defence which the gunman then exploited from afar. On occasion Barret would cover the swordsman from the wildly stabbing tail or Cloud would be forced to dive in front of the Scorpions machine gun fire to shield the AVALANCHE leader from harm with the flat of the buster sword. On others they would get in each other's way completely and even from here Jessie could hear the occasional string of angry cursing.

A clumsy uncoordinated team, but a team none-the-less.

_* **Beep** * * **Beep** * * **Beep** *_

Having been so engrossed in the long battle and the marvel of Scorpion guard, Jessie had become quite distracted from reality and glanced down at the device on her wrist in alarm.

"GUYS WE GOT 5 MINUTES! WE GOTTA GO!"

Her voice must have carried because no sooner had she yelled her warning and Barret's arm began charging for a big shot. Unfortunately with a machine that could think, the Scorpion reacted cunningly and the lethal laser tail went up for the first time, ready to counterattack.

_"No! Don't!"_

Despite the urgency of the situation, Jessie smiled with pride that Cloud had remembered.

 _"Wha'cha mean no!? I'M FINISHIN' THIS!"_ Barret roared, perilously continuing the charged attack.

Forced to act Cloud vaulted from the Scorpion and drove his shoulder into the big man's side. Barret's limit break careened wildly off course and though it struck a point of the reactor wall that was at least 100 yards away from her, Jessie was still moved by the force of the explosion violently rocking the inside chamber. It happened so quickly after that, her already precarious balance was compromised, she yelped, her leg slipped between the gaps in the bars and was wedged in tightly with the full weight of her fall.

_Shit shit shit shit shit_

Trapped all the way up to her thigh the red-head thrashed wildly, twisting, turning and trying with all her strength to leverage herself out. After a good while of desperate struggling it seemed she had only managed to get herself more stuck and cried out in pain on her final fiercest attempt but the bars remained clamped to her leg like a vice.

_* **Beep** * * **Beep** * * **Beep** *_

_3 minutes_

" _Aww yeah! We busted tha' spider freak up good!"_

_"Just hurry up."_

_"Shut yer face!"_

Looking up to see Cloud charging up the iron staircase with Barret greatly lagging behind, Jessie called out to them.

"H-HEY! OVER HERE!"

"Jessie!?" a pretty cut up looking Barret exclaimed.

"My leg! My leg it's stuck!"

"Hold on girl I'm-!"

"I'll get her" Cloud interjected forcing his hand to the gunman's shoulder. "You need to keep moving. You're slower."

"Ey! Who you callin' slow punk!?"

"SERIOUSLY!? We do not have time for this!" Jessie screeched.

"Aw'right aw'right!" Barret yelled and continued sprinting up the next staircase as Cloud hurdled the rail onto the beams with incredible spritely balance.

"I'm jammed in tight. Argh I can't believe I got myself stuck like this!" she commented with frustrated embarrassment as the handsome blonde knelt down before her to help.

Without hesitation he wrapped hot bloodied hands around the top of her leg and pulled with greater strength and leverage than she had been capable of. Jessie bit down the bruising discomfort and her leg moved a fraction but only served to hurt her further when a sharp lip on the underside of the vent cut its way into her quad. Forcing it more would badly slice her leg.

"Wait wait wait! Stop! It's not gonna work. You're going to have to go without me."

"Not happening" the worn ex-SOLDIER dismissed bluntly and with serious resolve took a grip of the bars.

Jessie mutely looked up closely into her teammates determined face in disbelief while Cloud took a deep bracing breath. The beams were at least six inches thick, it wasn't possible.

Nevertheless a reverberating groan creaked through the suspended structure and the muscles in lean arms flared with exertion.

_* **Beep** * * **Beep** * * **Beep** *_

_2 minutes_

The blondes entire body trembled in its effort to call up every ounce of the raw inhuman strength it contained. His eyes were squeezed shut, bright teeth clenched, veins popped in his arms and neck and still nothing moved. It was then, just when Jessie believed he had nothing left that she was proven wrong and he dug even deeper in a way that was both astonishing and frightening. Cloud's struggling limbs gained hard composure, his burning eyes opened and were filled with dark fury but even more startling to Jessie still, they were green. A deep venomous green that swirled about his wide iris' in flowing movement, a way eye's should not move. The phenomenon only lingered a second before the bars trapping her squealed open smoothly, she toppled backwards free and he collapsed down onto one arm.

"Cloud!" Jessie scrambled on hands and knees over to him in concern. "Hey hey hey! What was that!? What's wrong!?"

It would be pointless to try and lie to herself that as she took his head between her hands and raised once again crystal blues orbs to hers, her heart throbbed harder than it already was.

"I'm… fine."

She wanted to rebuke that and ask again what had just happened but it was by every definition neither the time nor the place.

"Cloud we have to go! NOW!"

A nod from the evidently strained Nibel and they were off in a flash, jumping the rail and leaping the iron staircase three sometimes four steps at a time.

_* **Beep** * * **Beep** * * **Beep** *_

_1.5 minutes_

Sprinting up the long ramp that ran alongside the monstrous industrial cooling tower was not as kind as the descent earlier had been and the red-heads legs were soon burning for a break. She forced herself to make it without stopping and dove into the open elevator at the top with haste.

"COME ON! COME ON! COME ONE!" Jessie spammed the up button frantically.

"Stay close to me out here" Cloud ordered fierce and tense, taking the buster sword to hand while the doors closed and the elevator ascended excruciatingly slowly.

_* **Beep** * * **Beep** * * **Beep** *_

_1 minute_

Lift slowing down the swordsmen did not wait for it to come to a natural stop and violently hacked his way through the sheets of metal that were the doors to get out faster.

SP turrets in the twin access code rooms they had taken care to avoid last time, whirred into life and rained fire upon them. Doing as he had instructed Jessie practically clung to Cloud's side and charged alongside him despite the fact her breathing was still pretty ragged and unrecovered. With one arm around her shoulders keeping her under his wing also, Cloud's other kept the buster sword aloft as a shield wall while they ran together, holding back the onslaught that would break any normal human beings arm.

_* **Beep** * * **Beep** * * **Beep** *_

_30 seconds_

Now Jessie had always considered herself a fast runner, yet as those final 200 meters of the main reactor bridge stretched ahead of them, the breathless woman suffered a sobering moment of despair that they wouldn't make it.

But she would try.

Running as if she were on track, Jessie committed the last of her strength to the sprint, her arms and legs pumping in quick aggressive tandem. The main reactor door they needed to run passed loomed gigantically on her right, barely seeming to move which only served to dishearten her further so she dropped her head and kept running.

_* **Beep** * * **Beep** * * **Beep** *_

_15 seconds_

Heavy boots weighing her down, lungs about to explode, Jessie's stamina hit its limit and her pace slowed.

A hand that could only belong to Cloud linked into hers and helped force her back to max speed.

_* **Beep** * * **Beep** * * **Beep** *_

_10 seconds_

_"COME OOOOOOOOON!"_

_"HURRY UP! GO GO GO!_

_"MOVE YA' ASS WOMAN!"_

_* **Beep** * * **Beep** * * **Beep** *_

_5 seconds_

Jessie gave the dash for the blast doors one last push that Barret, Biggs and Wedge were shouting to them from…

_* **Beep** *_

… and based on the volume of the blast and the sheer heat at her back, a couple of seconds sooner and she would have gone running headfirst into the lifestream.

* * *

**Chapter 5 Part 4- First kiss**

It didn't matter that the rear supply train carriage smelt like wet chocobo, spirits were high, her spirit was high, lifted by the thought that even if it were but a little, she had caused Shinra pain. Seeing that mako reactor raised to the ground had for so long been her dearest wish, a desire in some of her darkest years so fierce and fuelled by hatred it had at times been a curse on her soul. But at last it was gone, the blast still lingering on her eardrums and she prayed that wherever he was, dad would be smiling with her right now.

"- and when you guys came running across that bridge as it was about to blow! Ahh it was EXACTLY like an action movie!" Biggs bounced around the crate he was stood upon, throwing punches to the air.

"It actually was" Jessie agreed for once grinning. "Did you see that explosion though?"

"There was nothing left! Your bomb was amazing Jess" Wedge praised emphatically.

"Well we've got Cloud to thank for that as well." Jessie set her sights side-long to the ex-SOLDIER sincerely. "… there's a lot to thank him for."

Stood against the rattling carriage door with his arms folded, Cloud nodded lightly, understanding the full measure of her gratitude.

The door connecting to the civilian carriages up ahead slid open and Barret returned at long last.

"Looks clear so listen up! Now I ain't much for sittin' round shinin' compliments up each other's shitters, but good job, damn good job the lotta ya'! An' I mean the lotta ya'. Thanks to what we did the planet should keep going a little longer. But, we ain't out the woods yet" Barret pressed, his demeanour hardening. "City will be hot with SODIER from here on out and those sneaky Turk bastards could be anywhere so gotta be sure we don't get followed back to base. Ya' all know the drill, we get off at different stops, lay low for a couple hours an' make absolutely sure you're clear of any tail before meetin' back at the bar. Change clothes if ya' have to."

"Yeah yeah, we get it big guy" Biggs commented happily, hopping down from his box. "I'm calling shotgun on sector 4 south, hear some nutcase has volunteered to take on a behemoth in the arena down there. Tight crowd, ain't no eyes following me in that action."

Barret nodded and Wedge stood up next.

"Unless anyone else wants to go, I'd like get off at sector 5 central. There's a Loveless performance on at the goblin tonight. The theatre will be dark so I doubt you could notice anyone in there, even me."

"Fine. I'm takin' wall market an' that's that, got some business ta' take care of. NOT THAT KINDA BUSINESS YA' IGNORANTS!" Barret waved his arms furiously when a load of quiet snickering ensued, herself included. "Jessie?"

"I'll probably just jump off at six south, get lost in the scrapyard for a few hours and see if I can find anything for Fenrir."

"Figured as much. An' what 'bout you?" Barret concluded.

All eyes turned to Cloud still leaning with his arms tightly crossed.

"Hmm?"

"Fuck ain't ya' listenin'!? What stop ya' getting off at foo'!?" the gunman raged and Jessie smirked at the floor, almost certain that Cloud had pretended not to hear on purpose to wind Barret up.

"Dunno. What stops are there?"

"You don't know? Surely you've rode the train network before?" Biggs quizzed.

Cloud merely shrugged so Jessie stepped in before Barret could lose his cool.

"From what we've gathered Cloud has never spent much time in Midgar, if any. It's alright, I can show him the train grid and help him pick a stop. Explain a safe route back to seventh heaven."

"Hmph… yeah well your Spikey head better listen ta' Jessie real good. Ain't havin' SOLDIER showin' up on my doorstep 'cause ya' couldn't stop bloody showing off." Barret turned with Biggs and Wedge for the next carriage while Jessie crossed over to the 15 inch monitor mounted to the wall opposite the train door. "Feet killin' I need me a seat. Damn I hate stairs…"

Soon they were alone and for a while the only sound was the rattling of the trains wheels against its track and the computer grid bleeping to life. Within ten seconds of tapping away Jessie was in passed the units cute little username and password 'encrypted' login screen.

"Hey Cloud, come take a look at this with me. It's pretty neat." She began to pull up a visual presentation of the train and its path spiralling around the central pillar but turned over her right shoulder to see the ex-SOLDIER still stood some ways off. "You can come closer to me, I don't bite."

Enthusiastically Jessie went back to configuring the screens display ratio, she loved stuff like this. Bomb's, monitors, flashy stuff.

"Okay here it is. This is a complete city model of Midgar, it's about 1 millionth to scale…"

Jessie was suddenly unable to continue, the tall presence at her back moving in an unexpected amount closer, so much so the red-heads back was come into contact with.

"… the… the top plate is about 50 meters above ground, supported by the central pillar…" she tried hard to continue, really hard but faltered when his arm reached casually over her to take a hold of the overhead rail. She could practically feel his eyes on her back. "… with each sector having its own smaller support pillars-"

The way Cloud responded to her efforts next Jessie could not recover from and she gasped, the rush staggering her senses and catching her breath like ice-water down her back. The swordsman had linked around her and slid his hand across the thin dark navy t-shirt she wore under her armor, his battle-worn hand caressing flat against her stomach. The young woman stood frozen for a while, her heartbeat accelerated and breathing elevated as her head, struggling to catch up with what was going on, went into a tailspin.

She peered down giddily at the man's hand that was on her and instinctively placed her own to it to see if it was real.

"… Cloud? What are-"

"You hesitated."

His softly spoken tenor voice rumbled warmly over her shoulder, inches from her right ear and close enough she could feel the action of his speech vibrating through the contact of his chest pressing firm against her back. Jessie tensed, not daring to breath but also not feeling any inclination to move away.

"... hesitated at what?" the captivated girl squeezed out towards the computer terminal in front of her.

"About being friends."

"… I did?"

"I think so."

Blonde hair touched red, Cloud's words coming out this time as hot breath pleasuring against the curve of her neck and the pent-up breath Jessie was holding onto melted away from her lungs.

"Why are you saying this?" Jessie less than whispered seduced by the sensation, her head falling back onto the ex-SOLDIER's shoulder and her lower body pressing snugly back into his hips to complete the hold.

"I'm not equipped at dealing with cute girls Jessica."

Lips spoke in electrifying contact with her skin and in falling to the strong arms, in being called cute, the wet tracing on her neck, it signalled the final surrender of her already non-existent resistance. The tomboy engineer peered sidelong to gaze up at blue orbs staring lustfully down at where his mouth had touched and then to her face to look at her. Really look at her.

Maybe under different circumstances she would have resisted, remembered her pledge not to act on her crush for Tifa's sake but the truth was it never once crossed her mind in any real measure now to do so. Coming so close to death like she had today had put her head in a different place. It placed things in new perspective, made her think about what she really wanted in life.

The most affecting factor of all though was that the thrill of the mission was still fresh in her veins and of all the super-charged emotions the rough hand slipping under her t-shirt was giving her, nervous excitement was the greatest.

Seeing Cloud in action had been something incredible to behold. He was strong, skilled, brave, her saviour on two occasions now, still scarily mysterious in many ways and she was all the more attracted to the strikingly handsome warrior for it. Gazing up at him now, Jessie for the life of her could not remember how she had ever thought differently or could have believed that he wasn't her type.

And so at that intimate sidelong angle, she extended herself towards the gorgeous blonde holding her from behind and placed her lips to his.

Her insides trembled from the initial timid contact, at the sensation of her slightly ash covered face meeting against his ash covered face for the first time. But then his soft warm mouth reciprocated her advance and trembling turned to elated fluttering. Both parties committed to the exchange quickly thereafter and before either knew it, they were openly kissing, gradually ramping up into a pacey grabbing of lips that despite her inexperience, moved naturally and harmoniously in rhythm with the mans. Jessie boldly explored this new ground, switching between trying his upper lip between hers in isolation and then his lower. Tasting their encounter at all different angles she even tested raising her arm up to slip her hand around the back of his neck and pull them even closer. The passionate kissing deepened and sweet light grabbing transitioned into an unreserved open mouthed exchange that dissolved and ignited… everything.

It beggared belief for Jessie that she was making out with any man this way, this fervently, but the fact it was Cloud Strife made it all the more surreal. Surreal that it was one of his hands that wound fondly through the length of her crimson ponytail while the other on her bare stomach teased intimately along the waistline of her trousers, reminding her of the even more surreal episode that was last night and causing her body to heat up at the memory.

Anticipation, lust and desire building between them their physical intimacy escalated exponentially with every second they remained kissing this way. Hands touched faces, torsos, arms, waists, shoulders, hips. Jessie pushed herself deeper into the embrace, her rear pressing harder against his evident manhood. Cloud replied by ending the teasing and sliding his hand down her trousers onto the front of her underwear causing the next breath that left her to come out as a soft heave. Jessie responded by doing likewise, reaching back and shuddering with pleasant nerves at the feeling of the length beneath his trousers in her hand. All the while their kissing became all the more raunchier until the female video gamer was forced to break away breathlessly and turn to face him fully.

"… too much?"

"No" she replied, giggling lightly through her laboured breath at the tall haired swordsman's adorably concerned expression and heavily reddened lips. "I've wanted to do that for a long time."

"I know."

Jessie paused just as she had eagerly lifted onto tip toes to continue… whatever this was… and grinned coyly.

"Confident, aren't you mountain boy?"

"You said you liked that about me" Cloud quipped and the young woman was back to kissing him again, intentionally driving his footsteps further towards the back of the carriage.

"Do… you… always remember… everything I say?…" she remarked brokenly between kisses.

The ex-SOLDIER merely hummed to her ears delight, their tongues accidentally meeting for the first time which they decided in unison felt amazing and continued.

They stumbled on towards the rear of the supply carriage refusing to separate. Her destination; the cluster of crates in the corner. Her intentions; dishonourable.

Jessie didn't care about honor. She didn't care about modesty. She wanted to have him, to feel alive with the only man who saw and made her feel the way she always craved, like a desirable woman.

The plan had been to push them out of sight behind the tall stacks of wooden boxes, Cloud blindly catching the back of his heel against a smaller crate and sending them tumbling behind them worked just as well. Neither cared, a small chuckle passed between them at best from the heavy fall but soon died in the rush to hungrily return to kissing again.

Jessie straddled the fallen man's waist with her legs, taking care where she manoeuvred and sat as not to hurt him. She leaned in to lay atop the strong-bodied male and they kissed again briefly until the new AVALANCHE recruit angled her jaw up gently and made a made a bee-line for her neck. Her senses went into the same primal overdrive as the night before, her heart pounded against her hard metal chest plate she dearly wanted removed and the foreign desire rose up once more within her to fuck the man with mako eyes she could no longer help but adore. His mouth tenderly blessed her neck, her bruised collar, then her neck again, firmer now, spreading curious tingly sparks of heat in his wake. A fire she would gladly allow to consume her. His hands were down her back, on her hips, over her legs and then on her rear, making her tremble with excitement as he squeezed her lustfully hard. Then he reached between their fused bodies, took a hold of the button on her trousers and though it was remarkably tempting to let him strip her down to her panties again, or less, she wouldn't let this be another repeat of last night where she got everything. Not straight away at least.

Restraining Cloud's hands, Jessie climbed off him and with great willpower broke away the mouth massaging her neck pleasurably.

"…?"

"It's my turn."

With unwavering confidence she reversed herself upon the questioning first and boldly slid her tongue along his jaw to the centre of his adams apple before setting to kissing the area. All the while she did this, Jessie multitasked and reached down, squeezing her just-about-small-enough-hand into Kevlar trousers to take her first ever real hold of a man.

Cloud elicited a low noise that sounded vaguely familiar to her name and shifting from kissing his neck she placed her mouth to the entrance of his ear.

"After all, it's only fair I reward my hero with something a bit more substantial than a modded PHS upgrade" Jessie chuckled softly, as was he about to until she began working her hand and he faded to a light groan.

"… this… is a bit?"

"I'll let you be the judge of that" she replied hotly in his ear before latching her teeth to it.

Jessie didn't know why she did that, she just did it. The denser groan the ex-SOLDIER elicited as a result told her it had to have worked, as did the response she felt of the hot arousing sizeable object in her hand. Becoming too tight for what the red-head figured could be comfortable, she turned her full attention to the man's Kevlar legwear and released him.

Jessie did her best to conceal her innocent reaction to fully seeing her first and set to work. Twisting, caressing, changing pace, changing height, the headband wearer was inexperienced without question but she had seen enough on the internet to know a little and guess the rest. All the while her own body burned for attention of its own. The few minutes that ensued of Clouds receptive response to her efforts gave Jessie an endless amount of pleasure. They kissed, fumbled, played, he even managed to fit a hand up under her armour, t-shirt and bra in one go to take a spine-tingling skin to skin hold of her modest assets.

It was only a few minutes though, the hissing noise the connecting doors between carriages made when they opened abruptly killed their hopes of continuing further.

"Yo Jessie! B says… Jessie?"

"Yeah what?" she responded smoothly, quick to get to her feet and peer out from their hiding place. Commendably disguising all trace that she was flustered and praying that her own lips weren't so reddened or hair dishevelled that Biggs would notice from this distance.

"… why are you back there?" Biggs called back from the far side of the compartment in confusion. "Where's Cloud?"

"He's helping me crack into these crates back here. They're Shinra's , could be something valuable. Why!?" she lied with ease and a sharp defensive edge to her tone she knew would work a treat against Biggs.

"No reason, sheesh don't shoot the messenger boy. Barret told me to tell you, you need to hurry up, he reckons some guy is looking at us strange."

"Really?" Jessie huffed with a lame frown.

"To be fair I think he has a point. Dude has been watching us super edgy, might just blow the whistle so he wants you two up front."

"Alright we'll be there in a minute" she conceded, knowing Barret would only storm in here otherwise. Attention returning to Cloud after Biggs had left, Jessie bit her lower lip as needless to say the man on the floor was still ill recovered despite his efforts to be. "I'm really sorry."

"Don't laugh."

"I'm not!" she exclaimed though there was definite humour in both their faces, along with a great deal else in Clouds.

"Hmph. Lier."

It was in that playful moment Jessie realised to her delight that nothing between them had changed. Without words they somehow both knew the score, that what had transpired was no declaration of love or commitment to the other to be taken serious. Yet it was more affectionate and meaningful than two teammates simply having some empty meaningless fun. It was something weird and difficult for even her to fully understand at that point, yet somehow she knew whatever it was, Cloud was on the same page and that it was something rare. Something to be valued.

"No, I am sorry" Jessie repeated more sincerely and joining him on the floor again, took it upon herself to steal another few seconds of spirited rough kissing from the handsome blonde. "I'll cover you for a few minutes. Give you some time to calm down… Spike."

"You're enjoying this."

"Little bit." She stood up with a playful wink after he squeezed her around the hips. "In all seriousness though, we probably shouldn't ever fool around again on a job like this."

The light hazelish-brown eyed tomboy meandered away in heavy boots to leave, straightening herself out a bit more as she went and only stopping to half-glance back over her shoulder in a very girlish fashion at the man eyeing her curves before leaving.

"But Cloud, you always know where you can find me."


	6. First fuck

* * *

**Chapter 6 Part 1- First fuck**

The busy world that was sector 3's central town bustled by, fraught with danger and caked in dirty layers of pollutants prohibited from escaping to the wide open fresh skies by the oppressive plate above. It was a town that, unlike sector 7, actually had paved roads in the form of cobbled streets and therefore in turn, cars. Not fancy cars or streets mind you. Old recycled bangers that spewed out black smog and fought to crawl their way through the throngs of foot traffic that treated the pot-hole haggard paths as much theirs as the machines. It wasn't a pretty town but it was a town. A hive of activity. A metropolis that offered distraction from the depressing reality of slum life in the form of drinking, gambling, food, entertainment and other worldly pleasures.

A place the people of Midgar had made their own.

Jessie dreamily watched the life of the sleepless city sector roll endlessly on from her corner seat view by the window, an irremovable smile upon her flushed lips. She had told the others she would burn time in the scrapyard but after what had just happened, she couldn't. She needed a place to sit and think, to stupidly grin with absent mindedness and a café in the heart of town had become that place.

She had blown-up an entire mako rector less than a couple hours ago, the reports on the television were already flooding in. Engaged in hotly erotic foreplay on a public train less than an hour after that, the luscious heavenly sensations of which were still electrifyingly fresh on her mind and fresh on her body. The kissing, the caressing, the fervent man-handling. The lust and passion that somehow had an indescribable tenderness yet distinct edge of roughness in equal unified measure. The kind of hot inflamed lust that only existed in naughty fictions. The kind of passion the red-head didn't even know she possessed within her.

Jessie traced two fingers across her lips as if to remind herself of the sweet mouth that had branded hers and satisfied her long overdue desire.

_Wishful thinking…_

Truth was she wasn't satisfied at all, now she had been given a taste she craved him all the more. Wanted her arms wrapped around the warriors strong narrow waist and to bask in the heat of his body again. Wanted her hands coiled once more around his…

_… oh gods…._

A shiver danced up Jessie's spine, the memory of Cloud's beautiful curve straining under her control exciting beyond compare.

"You've been stirring that for 10 minutes. I think the sugars dissolved sweetie."

She jumped from her elicit reverie, peered up at the mature smirking waitress and bashfully set the small spoon down she had been unknowingly mixing mindless circles with in a coffee she had ordered a lifetime ago. The embarrassed but still glowing red-head prayed her face projected no incriminating signs of what she had been thinking about. The way the large curly-grey haired woman's grin was raining down upon her, it seemed as if she knew exactly what Jessie had been thinking.

"Ah that face, I know that lovely face. He's a very lucky man." 

"He?" Jessie played dumb, poorly so as the smile on her mouth only widened.

"This new boyfriend of yours."

"Oh, no he…" Jessie's thumbs traced the rim of cup. "… he's not my boyfriend."

"Well he'd be heavens fool to keep it that way. Let me get you a new one."

"No it's fine, honestly. Thanks anyway" she insisted, keeping her hands to the cold undrinkable cup. Her insides felt too unsettled and jittery to even handle coffee right now.

The sociable older lady simply nodded in understanding and left with a final kind smile. It was only a passing friendly exchange yet it got Jessie thinking, intrigued by how easily she had dismissed Cloud as being her boyfriend. Of course he was by no means whatsoever her boyfriend but it seemed curious, contradictory even, that despite how he often made her feel she possessed no real desire for him to be. Even in wake of what had happened between them last night and on the train.

Did she achingly yearn for the affection and intimacy of a loving partner from him? At times, yes. At other times, no.

Did she want commitment and exclusivity with him? While the thought of him with another woman didn't exactly have her jumping for joy, no. She didn't want that at all.

Jessie had seen the way people acted in relationships and while they would nearly all claim that their partner was also their 'best friend', in her eyes it wasn't true and never the same. They would pretend their relationship had the wonderful dynamic of friendship but the truth was there would always be the undercurrent of darker emotions that prevented true friendship in the way she saw it. Jealousy, possessiveness, insecurity, obligation to the other. Caution on what things one should and shouldn't say. She didn't want any of that with Cloud. Neither of them were in the right place for something like that. She wanted to continue being friends, to be able to hang out talking about absolutely anything, everything, stupid things and without barriers as if she were with Biggs or Wedge.

The only difference was she just wanted to rip the clothes off the ex-SOLDIER's body at the same time.

The red-head sighed and slid the cup she was beginning to irritate herself with away from her hands. Was she being delusional? Was such a thing even possible? To have the best of both worlds. The good without the bad.

Jessie shook her head.

She might well be on the edge of beginning something huge but she was overthinking things again. What had happened between them was wrong, a betrayal against Tifa no matter how she worded it to herself. Problem was she felt helpless to stop it because she knew the moment she next saw Cloud, she would act on instinct regardless of what conclusions she attempted to-

Jessie's body went rigid and the double-take she did out the café window was so fierce it nearly caused her to pull a muscle in her neck. The reality of what she was seeing coinciding with what she was thinking in too stark a coincidence to be real. There, imbedded deep in the crowd flocking in and out of the road that connected the main commerce strip she was on and what was perhaps the only courtyard with a fountain in the whole of Midgar, blonde spikes caught her eye and breath. A brief glimpse of yellow peaks, a strong purposeful stride, the distinct enormous handle of a sword standing above the heads of the crowd and a unique mine shaped pauldron on one shoulder. It was so brief in fact that once it was gone, Jessie wondered if her constant musing about the man had sent her brain into a frenzy and she had imagined him into existence.

Not willing to accept that she had succumbed to hallucinations of Cloud just yet, Jessie dropped 2 gil on the table for the coffee and made for the door.

* * *

**Chapter 6 Part 2- First fuck**

It was a struggle to believe he was actually here. Sure she had directed Cloud towards getting off at sector 3 south while getting off at sector 3 central herself, a bit of a sly move on her behalf that she might have a chance of running into him. But sector 3 was a VERY big place and the likelihood she would actually do so was so improbable she never truly expected it to happen.

Yet there he was, a head across the crowded square stood stationary at the edge of the large dirty marble fountain spewing stagnant water skyward in what were once wide reaching arches. Her heartbeat quickened, excitement peaked, knees pathetically weakened ever so slightly and she wanted to chastise herself for completely failing to maintain a balanced view of seeing him as her friend rather than a piece of hot male ass for her lusting over. Before she could do so however her feet were blazing a path across the square, her hand going up when she was close enough as her mouth parted to call his name.

But she stopped, abruptly realising Cloud was standing opposite someone, arms folded, his stare locked amicably down on a stranger he was seemingly in light conversation with.

The eighteen year old engineer tensed upon sighting the person, a silly reactionary response she readily dismissed and then tilted her head curiously to study the woman who had sparked the negative response. She was beautiful, strikingly beautiful in the most pure and feminine of ways possible who radiated a vitality that was rarely seen in the slums. Just as rare in fact as the basket of flowers she had hanging sweetly on one arm and together with her vigour, the woman stood out from the drab backdrop of the slums like white against black. Long chestnut hair spiralled down her back in a large twist of delicate brown curls like a pretty doll come to life. Round emerald green eyes twinkled bright and full of life accentuating the flower girls raw beauty. As for her clothing, a short sleeved red jacket hugged shoulders as dainty as her own and a well fitted pink dress innocently shaped out a lean womanly figure all the way down into big adorable brown boots.

Her opposite. Exactly the kind of cute girly get-up Jessie could never wear…

… besides the boots of course.

The youngest member of AVALANCHE watched on intently, too far away in the clamouring square to make out any of their conversation but one thing was clear as day, it was a friendly conversation. The porcelain-skinned female spoke cheerily, rocked enthusiastically back and forth on her heels with basket and hands linked together behind her back. As for Cloud he certainly stood with his arms folded but he wasn't stiff in posture like he was with most people and he was listening to her intently, gripped even.

Seconds dragged on, maybe 5 at most with Jessie questioning whether she should stay or leave. Suddenly something happened, something that kept her feet anchored to the spot and crested her reserved emotions in a way she could not discern between feeling terrible or wonderful. Cloud's mouths curved into a full smile. A remarkable unreserved smile full of more life and joy than she had ever seen in him before. An expression so uplifted it hurt her chest. Pleasantly or unpleasantly? Again, she couldn't tell.

She had never seen the striking and actually very cute phenomenon before. It was the reason Jessie had always described his smiles as 'half smiles' or 'smiles that weren't quite smiles', senses always telling her they were never as full as they could be. Held back by some darkness she longed to see lifted, even tried to lift herself. As months rolled on with no success she had begun to think she was wrong and that it truthfully was the full extent of his smile but now she had her answer. There was more she just hadn't been able to draw it out like this woman, her opposite, had.

So he liked the sweet innocent pretty type? Figured.

Fisting the sides of her tough combat trousers like they were irritating her skin the tomboy turned quietly away, deciding it was none of her business and to leave the couple to enjoy whatever discussion they were having. She would kill the last hour in the scrapyard before it was time to return to seventh heaven.

It was in that turn her periphery caught the most minuscule and easy to miss hints of a pristine suit. Too immaculate and high quality for a place like the slums.

Jessie froze and dropped her face immediately to the floor, knowing it would only take a single unchecked glance carelessly thrown for the clever bastards to clock her.

_Turks._

* * *

**Chapter 6 Part 3- First fuck**

Calmly and with great control the red-head allowed her feet to wander away from the vicinity of Cloud and the mysterious flower girl. Every hair on her body stood on end, the honed instincts that had allowed a homeless 15 year old girl to survive the slums kicking into action. She couldn't fight like Tifa but she knew how to handle herself and once she believed it safe, Jessie cast out a casual sweeping glance to get another look at the spy. To her great relief there was only one of the suited fuckers and he wasn't watching her in the slightest which allowed her angry predatory gaze to assess the man more clearly as she weaved stealthily through the ever-moving maze of bodies.

_She hated Turks._

He was lurking dangerously on the corner of the road she had recently jogged down, signature Turk suit, dark intelligent eyes, mid 30's at a guess with tanned skin and jet black haired pulled back into a sleek ponytail 5 or 6 inches shorter than her own. He was a Wutain. Had to be.

Something about that last detail and the air of lethal capability he carried about him unnerved Jessie more than a Turk usually would. Wutain's carried a deeper hatred for Shinra then anyone and after the atrocities that occurred during the war, they had every reason to. To see one working for the company and as a Turk no less, spoke volumes about what kind of guy this was and that he deserved her increased trepidation. Especially as his sights were narrowed suspiciously where hers had been only moments ago.

A bile of panic rose in the teenagers throat.

The Turk was watching Cloud.

_Or the woman?_

_No. It has to be Cloud._

The red-head whipped her head back towards her teammate, saw whatever the exchange was with the pretty flower girl was coming to an end and looked back to the agent. As they parted ways the Turks eyes followed the woman initially which gave her hope. That hope was speedily crushed when the Wutain's eyes refocused to Cloud and then after a few heartbeats, flicked to stare her alarmingly dead in the eye as if sensing her stare.

_Time to go!_

Jessie went from stationary to a sprint in an instant. She needed to get her and Cloud out of here, now!

For perhaps the tenth time today her legs were darting urgently to reach her destination.

"HEY!", "BITCH!" a couple she clumsily had to force from her path cursed angrily.

"Jessie?"

She snatched Cloud's hand in hers, only breaking pace for a second to give the deceptively heavy blonde a sharp tug.

"Come with me! Don't ask questions! "

He obeyed her demand, or at least he obeyed for as long as it took their boot's to pound from the square and down three streets, each quieter than the last.

"Why are we running?"

"Not yet!" she squeezed out through quickened breath.

Three more streets, two side alley's and the underpass of a rusted bronze train bridge rushed by before his second demand for answers came.

"Tell me why we're-"

"A little further" Jessie interrupted, detouring randomly down another silent dimly lit road. As random as possible so there was beyond a zero chance anyone could follow.

Perhaps she was over-reacting a bit but experience had taught her that when Turks were involved, over-reaction was the best reaction.

"Jessie."

Her arm jerked her body to a sudden jarring halt and the adamant countenance she peered back upon told her Cloud was not going to go any further. If she had air to do so Jessie would have huffed stubbornly back, instead she circled the ex-SOLDIER and jostled him by the shoulder into the recess of a nearby dark passageway so they were at least out of sight. Upon arrival the girl collapsed her back against the wall, sucking in warm musky night air, her heart hammering painfully in her chest.

"I… hate running… never… no more…"

"No objections here" Cloud's melodic calm voice replied, not in the least bit breathless. "So, what do you plan on doing with me now?"

Hands planted on her quads, the doubled over panting woman managed to grin briefly up at the ex-SOLDIER towering above her, his head slanted in amusement.

"Don't… be getting any ideas… mister."

She didn't really mean that, he could get whatever ideas he liked and she could see why he might. Jessie had only but to raise her hand in front of her and she would be touching him. Step forward and be pressed body to body like before. The narrow alley confining them to within an intense sizzling proximity of each other she was suddenly very much aware of. An alley dark enough that it vividly exploded the blue glow of Cloud's mako eyes and bathed her in a rich warm sapphire light. Jessie broke away before she could be become entranced by the hypnotic light and the profound magnetic influence the man had on her. Like a bug to UV light.

"So you gonna tell me who we were running from?"

The question came as she shifted to the edge of their hiding place to peer up and down the road. In part to gather some bearing on where they were and the rest in genuine expectation that she might see a suit.

"Turks" Jessie replied soberly, her breathing finally beginning to level out. "You had one following you."

"Oh."

She faced her teammate critically. Cloud's 'oh' sounding so unremarkable, so unbothered it begged the question as to whether he had actually heard her correctly.

"… oh? That's it? You do know who the Turks are right?"

"I know." Cloud's response was quick. Short. Through the veil of night casting dark shadows across her teammates delicate features Jessie even thought she saw his jaw clench.

"Then you know that they were probably waiting to capture you once you were out of that crowd?"

"You should have let them."

Jessie bristled under those words.

"Why would you say that?" she demanded instinctively, even slightly reprimanding in tone.

"I would be taken to the Shinra building. Closer chance of getting a shot at killing the president up there."

"Kill the…? Are you serious?" Jessie spluttered her words in disbelief, sticking close to Cloud's heels as he wandered out into the empty street.

Blowing up a mako reactor had been one thing, the biggest thing ever in fact. But killing the president? Not even Barret had considered the notion of it to any serious degree beyond angry rhetoric. It would be outright suicide.

"… I don't know. Maybe. Forget about it" Cloud dismissed absently, attention scanning the road they were on in every direction with a frown.

"Fine. But you really worry me with some of the crazy stuff you come out with at times" she said her piece but otherwise decided to leave the subject.

"Hm. Cute."

"The only thing cute around here is how lost your face looks right now" Jessie retaliated, poking Cloud in the base of his back with her finger and playing down how much she liked the remark.

_Oh gods. She was becoming a slave to his every word. Show some independence woman!_

"Where are you going?" Cloud asked.

The ungirly slum girl checked the multi-purpose device on her wrist while in the process of ambling her way back towards the rusted bronze pillars suspending the aged rail bridge she intended to climb.

"Still got an hour before we meet back at the bar. That's a lot of time if you're a pro metal scavenger like me."

"Wouldn't you rather get some food?"

Her exit halted abruptly as if arms had sprung out from the pavement and rooted her legs in place. The sudden rush of her spirit perking-up so considerably after such a long day causing her to experience a bit of light-headedness. The tech fanatic made sure to reign in her stupid grin before pivoting back around.

"Food? As in together?"

"Sure."

"I see" Jessie remarked, needing to avert her eyes to her boots to hide the grin this time. "You knooooww, most girls would interpret that as a date. Are you asking me on a date Cloud?"

He simply shrugged.

She narrowed her eyes in mischievous curiosity from afar.

"Then why are you asking?"

"Because you haven't eaten since this morning either so you must be hungry" Cloud met her attempt at extracting some honesty from him unphased.

_Nice dodge._

"I think we're both old enough to feed ourselves Cloud. I meant, why do you want to get food with me?" she pressed again, locking her hands to her hips. "Is it because you want to thank me for saving you from the Turks? Or because you don't want to admit that your hopelessly lost and need me to hold your hand to find your way out of here? Orrrrrr is it because you like me?"

"What do you think?" Cloud dodged again, his tongue emerging to lick his lips ever so briefly.

Sight of the pink tip sparked a wave of the unsated lust she carried over from their train ride earlier. Jessie controlled the surge and strode her way back down the street being weakly illuminated by poorly maintained lampposts.

"I think it's because your hopelessly lost." Her boots echoed against black cobblestone all the way until she was confidently stood a hair breadth off the blondes left shoulder. "And because you like me."

Jessie's words and the way she let her breath dance across the bare skin of Cloud's shoulder turned the ex-SOLDIER's head. Pale hazel orbs slipped into radiant ocean blue and there it was again, just as she had anticipated, that connection. She knew it would appear, it always did if they got close enough like this. She knew he felt it to, had zero doubt that this electricity did not run on a one way circuit. How she possessed such certainty was the unexplainable and exciting part. Outward signs of it were subtle and elusive, almost undetectable on a skin deep level. Yet the fact of its existence was as tangible and observable as the curved shapely eyelashes hilariously undermining the rest of the warriors stern guise.

"Your pupils are dilated. Thinking about something you shouldn't?" he goaded her playfully, flickers of what seemed like pride on his expression.

"Don't change the subject" she mercilessly cut off his retreat again.

"Fine. Would calling it a date really change anything?"

Jessie was going to pout at him for that, instead she let her hand shift the inch required for her fingers to lightly stroke the back of his hand. A laugh hummed in the back of her throat when the blondes entire body tensed at the contact, making her point perfectly.

"Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't. Either way you're paying."

"I knew you'd say that" Cloud grumbled but not unhappily as she circled behind him playfully.

"So where are you taking me?"

The swordsmen's head pivoted 90 degrees to glance at her, 90 degrees again to stare down one end of the street and finally 180 degrees to glance blankly down the other. Jessie's laugh that had been restrained to a throaty hum broke free. It was mean but the temptation to see that cute lost expression one more time had been too damn strong to resist.

With a light tug to the tips of his fingers she set off in the opposite direction from where they had come.

"Come on helpless little chocobo, I know the perfect place."

* * *

**Chapter 6 Part 4- First fuck**

"…ish pretty good."

"I know right!" Jessie exclaimed enthusiastically. "I can't talk for rest of the world but it's the best burger in Midgar hands down."

"What's in it?" he eyed the last bite of his food with genuine interest after swallowing and she cracked a laugh.

"Rule 101 of the slums Cloud. Never ask what's in your food. You'll pretty much never like the answer."

With a disturbed crease of his brow the blonde folded the last bite away into the wrapper and discarded it on the table top next to her empty wrapper. She had finished hers ages ago, a fact he had already teased her about. Two years of living among a gang of thieves, prostitutes and other helpless souls trying to make their way by any means necessary had taught her to eat fast or not at all. Cloud didn't know that bit when he made the joke, she wouldn't have taken it to heart regardless.

"I admit when you said you knew the perfect place, I wasn't expecting this."

Jessie smiled at the swordsmen as he joined her to sit on the table top with their feet planted on the part of the bench that was intended for sitting upon. They were chilling on one of those wooden outdoor picnic style tables, a comical sight considering you were never truly 'outdoors' in Midgar.

"Well I'm glad I can still surprise you" she tuned, leaning back on her hands feeling totally content to be sat like this forever.

Cloud had probably been expecting her to pick some fancy restaurant, most normal non-dysfunctional girls probably would. But Jessie was Jessie and an empty parking lot with sparsely occupied garden benches in the pitch black besides the residual light of a white halogen lit burger van was much more her style. A mouth-watering aroma wafted from the hot sizzling grills and Giles the 'chef' was the only person who's voice could be heard except the occasional murmurs of three other people scattered out in the darkness. All out for a late night eat like them and minding their own business.

Jessie fondly observed the wiery chef with dishevelled black hair jutting out crazily from under a small white hat talking to himself, or the spatula he was holding, it was hard to tell. She liked Giles, he was a bit odd, a bit eccentric, probably bat shit insane if she thought about it long enough but he had a kind soul and sure could cook a good burger.

"Out of interest, what kind of place did you expect I would take you?" Jessie found herself asking curiously.

Also watching Giles firmly reprimanding his cooking utensils Cloud's face lifted in amusement.

"Nope, this is exactly what I was expecting."

She laughed aloud and shoved the blondes arm who chuckled.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That your different… and you eat like a man."

"I can't decide if that's the meanest or nicest thing you've ever said to me."

"Depends."

"On?"

"If I get food poisoning."

She laughed yet again. Gaia did she ever stop?

"Hey I enriched your life with that burger. I bet being a disciplined SOLDIER you'd never even had one before you met me."

"Hmmm I had a dragon burger once."

Jessie ceased leaning leisurely back on her arms.

"Wait. So I'm clear, is that just someone's fancy naming or are we talking actual dragon here?"

"Actual dragon. Black dragon, they're pretty common in Nibelheim."

"And you turned them into burgers!? Wow! Have you ever seen one!?"

"Alive? Once. It came down from the mountains and ran our truck off the road when I was returning home four years ago on a mission. They… they never come down from the mountains."

Jessie heard the break in Cloud's voice and saw the frown furrow his brow.

"What happened next?"

"I… don't know. I didn't know that I remembered that until now."

_She had helped him remember something._

Jessie felt a swell of elation at that and considered pressing the dragon point further but she could see it was disturbing him and didn't want this light-hearted time together to end, not just yet. So she changed the question up slightly.

"What about the mountains? I'm curious. What are they like?" Jessie laid flat on her back as she voiced her genuine wonder, stare connecting up through the darkness with a hideous jungle of grey scaffolding and unsightly tangle of cables that was the underside of the plate.

"Rocky and cold."

Jessie puffed a chortle platewards.

"I guessed you would say that. Weren't much of a poet in any of your previous lives were you?"

There was a short instance of silence, save the frying of food.

"The mist is what makes them cold. Hangs about all year and has this way of getting into your bones no matter how much clothing you wear" Cloud continued much to her delighted surprise. "It's damp so it's kind of like your breathing vaporized iced water but nicer. The kind of air that clears your head with one breath. I liked it. It was… easier…. to put things in perspective out there in that wide open space. Not like Midgar. The air here is warm, clouded, too cramped. Things get… muddled."

Sprawled on her back the red-head was listening intently and inhaled deeply up at the industrial eyesore above, desperately trying to imagine that fresh clarity in her lungs Cloud was describing.

"What else?"

"Well. The mountains themselves are barren, nothing but thorns and a few ugly trees that refuse to die exist there. People in my town used to try and use those tress as proof that the mako reactor Shinra built was to blame for how Mt. Nibel turned out. Truth is the mountains died long before Shinra ever showed up and were always full of monsters. Carnivores hunting other carnivores in an endless circle, that's the real reason they became so vicious, the mako leaks just made them worse. It's the harshest landscape you can imagine with footfalls that can take you at any minute and dark jagged peaks that look like something from an ancient horror movie. Sounds scary but the funny thing is when you see them, you'll feel the strongest urge to climb to the top. People always feel the need to make it to the top of mountains. That or run back to their home and shut themselves away, one or the other."

"I wonder what I'd feel like doing."

"You'd climb."

Cloud spoke so surely and her stomach fluttered happily as her smile projected upwards ever stronger. She didn't even see the plate anymore, her focus was lost in the expanse of nothing that existed in between. Her minds-eye trying to fill the space.

"I'd like to see mountains one day."

"Yeah?"

"Mountains. Or the ocean. A forest. Anywhere as long the skies above it. I guess that's really what I want to see most. I mean... I have seen the sky. Snuck to the edge of the city gates a couple times" Jessie explained when she saw Cloud gaze at her questioningly from the corner of her eye. "But I imagine a smeary 40 foot reinforced glass wall kinda diminishes the effect, not that I'm an expert."

So you've never been outside Midgar?" the ex-SOLDIER still sat upright with his arms draped over his knees asked in such a way it charmed a giggle from her.

He made it sound so straight forward, like there was a choice. Like the slums were just some temporary pit stop for her before she moved on to her true destination as opposed to being her entire existence. It was never clearer to Jessie that Cloud Strife simply lived in a different world to the one she did and while she knew his was not always a pretty world full of sunshine and rainbows, it was a world she wanted to be in. One with infinitely larger borders than her own. One that could be terribly dark but also wonderfully light rather than just grey.

She was tired of grey.

"No, I've never been out of Midgar" Jessie let her humour at the notion show.

To her pleasant surprise the man kicked back casually to mimic the same laying position beside her, causing the wooden table top to creak under them.

_One day she really would ask Cloud how much he weighed._

"Then I'll take you. Least I can do after the help you've given me."

"Really?"

"Sure", "Sure" Cloud replied and Jessie parroted at the exact same time, knowing it was precisely what he was going to say.

They rolled their heads towards each other, then back to the sky and laughed. Her cheeks were beginning to hurt now.

By the time Jessie had supressed her husky amusement to a few small coughs, they had settled in closer, time span without measure and then a familiar coarse hand slipped into her palm at their side. The action didn't even startle her this time like it usually would. Didn't make her adrenaline spike or unsettle her breathing. The video gamer just closed her fingers to form a natural link with the fingers that had slid between each digit of hers.

It was what it was.

She remained lazily observant of the plate for many blissful minutes. Cloud did to, though she suspected he wasn't inspecting it inquite the same structural scrutiny as she was.

"Fucking hell that's ugly" the blonde eventually deadpanned, confirming her suspicion with an unexpected use of vocabulary and she snickered.

"Yes, yes it is."

_"Blonde. Big spikey hair. Sword the size of that shitty fridge. Handle longer than a Elphadunks johnson. YO I SAID NO ONIONS!"_

Jessie sat bolt upright simultaneously with Cloud and now her adrenaline did spike though not in a pleasant way. Angrily flapping his arms over at the burger van only 30 or so feet away, was the back of a tall lean man with hair as shock red as her own and a sloppily presented variation of a suit she had seen earlier.

"Shit! How did they track us? This way… Cloud come on!" Jessie had to hiss her whisper forcefully to convince the swordsmen, who seemed perfectly happy to stay where he was, to recede away into the darkness with her.

_"Picture hedgehog meets chocobo meets Rufus Shinra and they have a threesome. You see a dude who would look like their love child? Well!?"_

Jessie felt more than heard her teammates growl and she had to clamp her mouth down to stop from giggling. It was a pretty accurate description.

_"Look you goggley-eyed fruit! I heard ya' babbling to ya'self so don't try pulling the mute card with me. He was seen in this area so answer the damn question."_

Having crept far enough away towards the nearest street that exited the parking lot, they picked their pace up into a brisk walk.

_"Screw it. YO RUDE! YOU WANT SOMETHIN' MAN? Got more chance of picking a turd up by the clean end then getting answers from this Tonberry faced fucker."_

The shock of coming face to face with a tall, strongly built black guy standing directly in the middle of the pavement made the eighteen year old female yelp. He must have been bewildered to because for a few tense seconds he did nothing but stare right back at her and Cloud, though it was hard to tell behind sunglasses.

Yes… sunglasses.

Everything happened super-fast from then on. The suited agent's deep commanding voiced barked "FOUND HIM", he lunged at Cloud with frightening agility and swung a vicious gloved fist with a force that would put most professional boxers on their ass. Luckily Cloud saw it coming because she sure didn't, caught the punch in his hand with a painful sounding smack and dodged his face from the path of the other. Both attacks failing locked the pair into a brief grapple and with time to react, Jessie ran in and drove her foot into the Turks shin. Already off balance from over-committing to his opening strikes she was able to kick the hefty assassins leg out from under him. Forced him down onto one knee a swift right hook from Cloud knocked the bald man the rest of the way to the ground.

Angry incoherent cursing split the air from the Turks other foul-mouthed companion who's footsteps were fast approaching and Cloud's hand reached for his sword but she stopped him.

"COME ON!"

She half expected him not to listen but then they were off, her theory that she would do no more running today trampled underfoot. Jessie led the way, knowing precisely where she was heading. The thought that it was too risky to return to seventh heaven after the encounter with the first Turk had her considering the option of if and where they should lay low for the night. Now with confirmation that the fraternity were actively tracking them the necessity to lay low was unquestionable.

Scary thing was and the bit Jessie didn't want to admit, deep down she was actually glad because now she didn't have to try and justify this to herself. The real reason she wanted to lay low Cloud.

It took around 10 minutes before they arrived and she was pulling Cloud off the street and in through the door of a trustworthy local inn.

* * *

**Chapter 6 Part 5- First fuck**

Taking a deep refreshing breath Jessie formed her damp crimson hair into a loose ponytail and stared at the woman in the steamy bathroom mirror. It seemed like a millennia since she had enjoyed a shower that didn't leave her with standing nipples and goosebumps all over her body. She felt invigorated and perhaps a little bit nervous.

Ok, that was a bare-faced lie. She was as nervous as a moogle thrown into a battle arena with behemoths and not because of the encounter they had with Turks earlier.

Stray wet droplets dripped from the tips of her hair wetting the back of her t-shirt , the only movement while Jessie remained totally immobile and both hands clutched to the edge of the square porcelain sink. She had got off the phone to Barret not long ago after explaining why she and Cloud would not be returning tonight. He yelled a bit, told her he was coming down because the 'punk' still could not be trusted. She retorted that it was too dangerous, told him he was being a ridiculous ass and hung up her PHS without telling him where they were.

While all of that was true, danger was last on the list of reasons she didn't want Barret coming down here.

Jessie squirmed uncomfortably, grasping at various sections of her clothes like doing so would improve the shape of them and the general appearance of her physique. She knew what she wanted to happen, she was just terrified about it actually happening.

_"Go away brain! He's probably sleeping already anyway."_

Not allowing herself to think any further the red-head in turmoil courageously begun her venture out into the room that they had collectively 'agreed' would be safer, cheaper and more pragmatic to share. It was a simple room, clean and smelled nicely of lavender though that was of course an artificial fragrance. Furniture amounted to only a sliding white panelled wardrobe filled with empty hangers and a dresser table that stood both in front of closed blinded windows and at the base of a firm double bed fitted with actual white sheets.

_Aaaaand there her gorgeous friend was pulling off the pillows on one side and setting up a bed on the floor._

"… C-Cloud?... What are-" Jessie's voice stammered, sounding tiny and pitched a couple octaves higher than normal as she walked in. "… never mind."

Her cheeks warmed and she hurriedly rushed towards the corner where she had ditched most of her gear before the swordsman could notice.

_What the hell was that!? That wasn't her voice!_

"The 'ridiculous ass' bit was a nice touch. Others make it back ok?"

Cloud openly expressing any sort of concern for the others would garner her full attention under normal circumstances, if only to point it out to him. Instead Jessie gingerly gathered up her grime covered pauldrons and breast plate and set them on the dresser so she had an excuse to busy her hands.

"Everyone's back and ok, kinda. I could hear Biggs crying in the background. Idiot probably lost a week's rent down at that stupid fight pit again."

Jessie did a remarkable job at managing to form a coherent relevant sentence but the entire time her voice was as thin as iced glass and in real danger of breaking. Meanwhile her fingers fumbled with one of the side latches that clipped her chest armour shut while Cloud spoke again.

"We can leave in the morning. Catch the early crowds and head back on foot."

The metal clasp was dented, had been for some time and it was a kink she usually tackled methodically in a few seconds. Now it proved nigh on impossible for the engineers shaky hands and her frustration grew and grew while her teammate considered their next move.

"It'll take some time to walk through 4 sectors but the trains will be a no go. I know the Turk you described, names Tseng. He's clever... "

Jessie impatiently snapped and shoved the armour down on the dresser with an annoyed thump.

"… Jessie?"

"Sorry!... sorry. I don't… I don't know what's going on with me" she ground out truthfully, alarmed and confused as to why she had got worked up to such a state that her blood was racing wildly through her veins.

Not wanting to reveal more of this weird embarrassing episode than was necessary she didn't glance back towards Cloud's end of the room when at first he remained silent. She just stared down into a murky reflection of herself in the silver plate on the dresser, praying for herself to calm from this mysterious flare-up.

"I do. You want to finish what we started earlier."

Her quickened blood ignited into flames, shooting through her arms, down her legs and coiling in her stomach all at the drop of that one sentence. Jessie's head reared to the mauve curtains with wide eyed astonishment and the intake of oxygen she sharply inhaled made the instantly formed knot in her belly all the worse.

_Did he just say…?_

Seconds passed with the red-head battling to think of ways she could be misinterpreting what he had just said. It quickly sunk in that she was being a fool, that there was no misinterpretation to be made and they had both known this was coming.

Oh how it had been coming for such a long time.

_Quit acting like a moron Jessie!_

Straightening up the tomboy composed herself. She was a woman now, not a little girl and it was time to take what she wanted. Squaring her shoulders, firming her desire in her mind, Jessie turned and stared Cloud dead in the eye with unwavering intent.

"Yeah. I want to finish what we started earlier."

Cards laid fully on the table, silence ensued. Not awkward silence. Perfect silence as he beheld her knowingly and she held him right back with an unabashed yet unavoidable blush. A moment raw, honest and intense…

… until Cloud lifted his sleeveless kevlar jumper, the only garment clothing his torso and discarded it without breaking eye contact.

After a couple painfully long seconds of trying her best not to do so, Jessie did break it, dropping her pale brown eyes to what was bared and a small whimper most definitely escaped her throat. Seeing the genetically modified definition of perfection half bared with sinew and grooves for miles, a scattering of warriors scars and thick definition that would make any woman swoon was one thing. Having it bared for her pleasure only was something else, enough to stimulate a very quick response from between her legs.

"Your go" the tear-your-hair-out attractive swordsman uttered, still stood 10 or so steps away beside the bed becoming a growingly more prominent object in the room.

"My go" she echoed with more courage than it had taken to storm a Shinra mako reactor.

Jessie slid her cropped lycra under-armor up passed her bellybutton, all the way to the underside of her bust where she experimented with a pause. A subtle flicker of disappointment flashed across Cloud's features, a look born from true desire and all she needed to gladly pull it the rest of the way leaving her in only a black sports bra moulded tightly to the contours of her breasts.

"Hm. Cute."

It wasn't hard to tell Cloud was staring at her navel when he repeated the same words from earlier. Jessie intended to flirt back with 'I was going to say the same to you'.

"Your turn" was how it came out instead, in nervous lustful challenge towards his trousers no less, finding her eagerness for this was fast catching up.

He saw the challenge, kicked off all his footwear and glanced to the cool laminate floor at her feet with a devilish smirk.

_Shit._

She was barefoot.

He was going to follow up with a clever remark, she could see it forming on his lips. Jessie muted him by hitting the three buttons on the front of her trousers, dropping them off her hips and stepping out in underwear she was surprised to see arouse the warrior. Small black boxers stretched low on her pelvis, designed like her bra for tight fitting support as opposed to seducing a lover. Her muscled teammate evidently liked it because once his trousers were off soon after, the stretchy navy material of his own underwear battled against his already well extended manhood in its mission to stand to attention.

Now Jessie's nerves really were quivering and the ball was back in her court. She took a deep breath and reached back for the clips of her bra.

_This is it._

"You don't have to-"

"You want this right?" Cloud honourably began and Jessie interjected.

Slowly her man for the night nodded and three teeth of her sports bra being separated later, the red-head trembling with adrenaline was letting her support tumble away from her.

Firm curves that could provide the AVALANCHE mercenary with just about a handful of womanhood stood proud and aroused. She wasn't well endowed like your typical porn star or sporting double D's in a way she assumed most men fantasised about, but she would give him what she had to offer. In full vulnerability Jessie fought the urge to fold her arms across her body and fearfully gauged Cloud's expression. Full adoring lust stared back at her, he was fully erect now and her cheeks mimicked her hair colour happily at the physical compliment, one that was not so easily faked and did wonders to her confidence. He genuinely looked like he couldn't wait to get his hands on her and she was right because soon the 10 steps of distance was reduced to 3 and Cloud was advancing towards her.

"H-hey. That's not fair. I-it's your turn."

He paused an arm's length away and Jessie trembled wonderfully under the powerful aura of immeasurable strength and sexual intent he radiated. Cloud had always appeared lean and athletic in clothes before. Manageable. Now with broad buster-sword wielding shoulders, full chest and a whole lot of vascularity on full display he seemed huge. In more ways than one.

Wet pooled between her weak legs. Instantly more-so when his precious cerulean orbs shone fondly at her demand and he confidently dropped the last scrap of his clothing, forcing her eyes to travel down in a way that was excruciatingly obvious due to how close they were stood. She thought her reaction to seeing it the second time around would not be quite so innocently bug-eyed but low and behold she was thrown off kilter and swallowed hard. It didn't take anywhere near as long for her timid disposition to abate this time. After seconds of staring her responding body increasingly began to ache and reaching out her hands she caressed them along either side of him in shameless curiosity. Cloud shuddered as she ran her hands all the way from the base of him to the tip and then left to take a hold of her own underwear. Cloud's palms engulfed her hips, stopping her and it was only when he moved sensually closer and circled around never removing his hands from her little shorts, that she realised it was so he could savour their removal himself. Her heart jumped giddily, recovered, then jumped giddily again when hot lips pressed a kiss against the back of her bare shoulder blade.

_Odin above._

Jessie's eyelids fluttered at the contact and she remained melted to the spot while the naked man behind her sunk to his knees, giving him full control to enjoy her anyway he wanted along the way. Once he had travelled down her with light touches Cloud had all his fingertips tucked in the band of her shorts, peeled them down a short way and replaced a slow open-mouthed kiss over her pelvic bone.

_So simple but so good._

"Do that again" Jessie's vocal cords hummed throatily.

Her last article of clothing was slid away completely and she openly watched the man worshipping her skin by sliding his tongue up the curve of her hip. She could have dropped into an orgasm right then and there, everything feeling super-charged as if the nerve endings along the pastel surface of her skin were a thousand times more sensitive or there were a thousand times more of them.

"You like that?" Cloud reverberated as he stood again, lovely coarse hands running up her bare stomach in his ascent and cresting over twin mounds to cradle her assets.

"I-I think if you let go of me right I'll fall over." The warrior huffed a breath of satisfaction at her answer and he shifted the bulk of her still damp hair over one shoulder to nip at her neck. "Mmmmmm… you know you seem awfully good at this… ahhh… for a guy who supposedly bunked with other guys 365 days of the year."

"Think so?" he remarked proudly and with a short swift flick of his foot against her ankle the tech-fanatic's breath hitched as her legs were skilfully kicked apart into a wider stance.

Jessie's nipples were braiding between the ex-SOLDIER's fingers once more as he used her chest to manoeuvre her tight against the bed of muscle that was his body. Every point of contact against him felt comfortable, safe, divine and in a moment that was mental and physical ecstasy he positioned his manhood to touch her in the most intimate of ways possible. He didn't penetrate her, merely used the reason he had kicked her legs open to rub through the folds of her body, coating himself in her glistening arousal and delivering the lubrication on his swollen head all the way up to her clit.

_Gaia she was so wet._

Her bones turned to liquid pleasure, not even her imagination that could be extremely rampant at times had been capable of fantasising anything this good.

"Finally" he sighed wonderfully in her ear.

"You wanted to do this to me back on the train?"

Jessie raised her arms overhead, cuddled them back around her taller heroes neck making her back arch and squashing her breasts deeper into stimulating hands.

"I wanted to do this to you the first time I walked into your workshop."

A wave of sensation coursed through her as a result of that delicious admission causing Jessie's knees to buckle ever so slightly and in turn, squeeze her heat tighter around him making Cloud groan. She never knew words could do that.

Patience gone and needing to hear that sound from him again a whole lot more, the red-head carefully flipped around and planted her hands squarely on the blondes pectorals. She was going to take control, fearing that if she didn't he would foreplay with her until she was nothing more than a limp boneless flan of delight on the floor.

"I'm ready. Don't make me wait anymore."

Cloud cocked his head at her and his eyes pulsed brilliantly as if all the mako inside him was blazing its way to the surface.

"Ask nicely."

Jessie's teeth latched on to her lower lip.

He was teasing her again, he always got a kick out of it but this time she knew it was a front. His cock was straining for her just as much as she was longing for it and so she tiptoed, let their mouths touch ever so briefly whilst levelling their eyes.

"No."

Jessie shoved his chest as hard as her strength allowed then followed him down into the crisp covers of the bed and it was game on. Her completely naked body slapped atop his but the fighters trained reflexes were supernatural and he had her rolled over, flipped under him and wrists pinned amongst a fan of her own moist crimson hair quicker than she could notice.

"Ask nicely" Cloud repeated, grinding his stomach flat against hers as if he somehow knew it was filled with butterflies and was purposely trying to piss them off.

He was intentionally dragging the anticipation out to a level that was unbearable, making her want to scream for him to take away her longing and get inside of her. Her lungs were panting erratically and with a guy who looked like some sort of video game or anime sex idol come to life stationed between her parted legs, what woman wouldn't?

"… please… please don't make me wait anymore!"

Yep, she begged with zero shame. She challenged any woman to first have Cloud Strife naked between their knees teasing their pulsing wet core before they claimed they would do anything different.

Thankfully a kiss came crashing roughly down against her mouth in reward, fierce and fiery to fill her head with a few more stars before Cloud gently began easing into her. It felt strange for a second, difficult to accommodate the next and then Jessie jolted when he had got to the point she was expecting but totally not ready to be quite so sharp.

"Jessica?" Cloud froze, not going any further.

Her spine tingled. She loved it when he called her that.

"I'm fine" she lied. "Just be quicker."

"Really?"

His face was a picture of utter confusion and she nodded convincingly. Perhaps that was bad of her, but she knew what needed to be done.

Accepting her assurance the ex-SOLDIER continued, she bit down to ground herself and didn't stop biting while a third of his size quickly occupied her. Jessie felt herself break and her hands shot out to grip Cloud's forearms as a painful cry escaped her. It hurt like a bitch and tears pricked her eyes.

"Jessie! You? You're a-!"

She dug her fingers into his arms and hooked her feet around Cloud's legs, refusing to let him off her. He appeared horrified and on the verge of retreat and she knew why. He now realised she had been a virgin, that she had picked him to be her first and his head was screaming with all kinds of things that simply weren't true.

"It doesn't matter" she gently assured, relaxing the tension in her grip in tandem with the pain slowly subsiding. "It doesn't change anything."

"But-"

"Don't speak. Don't think." Jessie took one of his hands, placed it on one of her breasts and though it was still uncomfortable to do so she rolled her hips to fuck him a little. Cloud's eyes lolled at the tight hot sensation and his lust was soon back with a vengeance.

"Y-you… *hsss* should… have told me."

"I know, I'm sorry" she replied while offering a cheeky 'so not sorry' grin when he began to move inside her. "Now shut up and make me yours mountain boy."

Unable to fight anymore he started gentle. Tiny movements to ease her in for many minutes until discomfort was replaced only with satisfaction at having him in her at last. They kissed deep, exchanged tongues like they did on the train and soon more pleasure was joining their union. His strokes lengthened and when they emerged another few minutes later, breaths were colliding mid-air in laboured exhilaration.

"You feel amazing" he sung sweet music to her ears and presented his fingers to her mouth.

Jessie understood and licked at them, coating them in her own saliva. Kinkily he added his own and then slipped his hand down between their bodies to massage her clit.

That was it. That was exactly what she needed to really get her going until she was better accustomed to being entered and Cloud knew that.

His hand stroked clockwise like magic, his hips pumped down to fill her up a tiny bit more and she moaned onto Cloud's mouth, her legs falling further apart.

His fingers changed direction, Cloud offered her more of his manhood in unison and Jessie's lower muscles tensed, rewarding them both if the sounds they made were anything to go by.

He got deeper, pleasure got stronger. Short groans, small hums and little growls flowed from them both. Receptive little noises alerting each other of approval for the others actions.

Jessie shifted, rolled and lifted her hips to alter the angle of his thrusts, determined to take all of him. The blonde rumbled his love for it.

Cloud's speed gradually increased inside her making their bodies collide together firmer and her impossibly hornier. Jessie purred to the sky.

That must have really got him going because finally, when she was impatiently trying to encourage him deeper, her lover ran her right through to the hilt and connected with something that sent precious volts dancing up from her pussy. Her body went rigid, the volume dial of her audio delight turned right up and her legs wrapped crushingly around the man atop her experiencing a high of his own.

"… Cloud!... f-fuck..."

"Ugh!… I know!"

He retracted, drove and hit it again. Once, twice, three times and Jessie's luckily harmless nails buried viciously into his back, each strike infinitely better than any self-induced orgasm she'd given herself in the past. This was heavenly.

_So sex really was as good as the world made it out to be. Interesting._

"… this… you're… incredible!"

Jessie learnt a valuable lesson in that moment. Tell a man he's incredible in bed and you WILL be rewarded.

Constantly hitting away at her sweet spot Cloud's hand suddenly hooked under the crook of her knee and forced it up towards her stomach, allowing him to reach a whole new level of depth and delight that made her body soar. He wasn't even having to use his hand to stimulate her anymore, the exquisite rolling and grinding motion of his hips did all the work in rubbing her off. The way he moved buried Jessie under so many layers of euphoria that when Cloud's mouth clamped around her neck and began sucking hard with his thrusts, she had not a single ounce of willpower to stop him. He was going to leave a love bite that the others and most definitely Tifa was going to see. Her hands possessively grabbed the swordsmen's backside and pulled him deeper between her thighs with an excited groan.

_Turned on by that again? What the actual fuck was wrong with her!?_

She should be thinking of ways to stop this or at the very least stop him leaving evidence on her body. Instead all her brain could think was.

_Bite me! Mark me! Fuck me!_

So why resist? It was futile to try and think she could do anything to contain this. His power over her was absolute and that drove her wild.

Shoving off from the covers that her fists had turned to mangled wrecks, Jessie managed to get them rolled over once more in total surrender and a sudden rushing need to call the shots.

"Jess… I…" Cloud's surprised voice strained desperately.

She was straddled across his body, riding him totally drowned with no sense of modesty, breasts bouncing freely with every time she slapped herself down on his length. Possibly more exciting than her own pleasure was that she could read the Nibel's body right now as well as she could read her own. He wasn't going to last now she was in charge and he couldn't focus his mind or control his own pace. That was ok, it was impressive he had gone this long as it had to have been years since he had last been with a woman. She wasn't going to last much longer herself anyway with his hand working her again.

"Don't… hold back… baby."

The endearment rolled off her tongue breathily and she rode him harder. It must have broken a bit of his reservation in trying not to cum because he sat upright, grabbed a fist full of her crimson hair with his free hand and forced her head back. Her breasts perked skywards towards the ceiling, a ceiling that got mistier in her vision when a hot mouth was closed over her nipple and she gasped. It limited her ability to rise and fall but she couldn't stop so her body did what it could and fucked him in grinding back and forth motions instead while his mouth worked her chest.

Cloud soon collapsed to his back again, the new change of movement blanking his brain out and bringing him one step closer to release. When he returned to her his free hand brushed up every beautiful inch of her torso until his thumb was tracing over her lips. She took it in her mouth on primal instinct and swirled her tongue around the digit which rocked the man under her again and left him needing to exert himself upon her, no longer content to lay there. Cloud began thrusting up into her, his muscles flared to bursting point with such a ferocity she could practically feel the power of his enhancements coursing through her. Jessie transitioned from sucking his thumb to biting down on it, not hard enough to break skin but enough to get the fighter, trying to hold out with clenched teeth until she cummed first, to let go. The result was Cloud Strife pounding Jessie so hard her brain close to rattled and it struck her that she was able to command just as much power over him as he did over her.

It turned out that he didn't need to try and hold out any longer because that revelation ushered in a familiar mountain of aggressive pressure rushing up from her genitals. Her teeth mimicked Cloud's in a gritted bite, her senses lost all concept of the world around her and her bad habit of swearing as she rode up a climax reared.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"

Jessie unrelentingly continued bouncing through the throws, his straining sex stretching inside her making the journey up to her peak better than ever.

"Jes-Jessie!"

"Don't!.. you dare!... hold on!"

Her entire body shimmered with a slick layer of sweat, a layer that Cloud also wore and made his physique an eye candy that 'arousing' was not a strong enough word to describe. And when Cloud's ever hardening thrusts caused her to fall upon that physique and their burning sticky bodies met in slippery rapture, Jessie's orgasm broke the richter scale. Her drawn out cry of bliss most likely did not remain contained to the inn let alone their room and her body clamped down around her teammates.

With her walls squeezing him Cloud only managed to endure 10 or so second of pumping, long enough for Jessie to experience the full extent of her mind-melting orgasm and then some before she was thrown down into the covers. No sooner had she had hit them and Cloud's hot release was spilling on her stomach and down the valley of her cleavage.

The ex-SOLDIER collapsed in beside her, panting for air as heavily as she was for the first time ever and it took a few seconds before both their senses returned enough to peer at each other with heaving chests and laugh. It took Jessie even longer between bouts of pleasurable reverberations and breathlessness to construct a sentence.

"… we… should…. have been doing… this… ages ago…"


End file.
